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Powered by LifeTypeSince I am in the category of people who is expected to see my health insurance double or triple, I wonder why people are spending so much on their health insurance. I do see that since we are "poor", we'll likely get free or heavily discounted health insurance under Obama's plan. It seems silly to me that you all should pay for my health insurance, but since that is the American way, I won't turn down taking your money. (though I would vote against these silly bills - even if I was offered money for my state -- too bad the legislators sell out so easily; though they now know the right way to get more money for their state - publicly declare that you are waffling on the issue, and let it slip that if only there was $100 million in the bill for you, you might change your mind).
And some quotes from the media, since I've been seeing more news at my parents' house.
David Orentlichter, co-director of the Center for Law and Health, Indiana University, concurred. "Insurers will have to charge the same rates to all persons -- with some freedom to charge higher rates based on age." ABC News
That's not really fair - you mean you can charge higher premiums for people who spend more money? That's crazy talk. Why should older people pay more than younger people who spend more? To be consistent, proponents of this silly bill need to say that everyone should pay the same premium amount.
And I wonder why Obama is urging legislators to ignore their constituents? (Granted, it was only "reportedly said", though by a member of his own party)
"It's tempting to say, 'I'm tired, it's hard, I'm getting beat up back in the district, it's just not worth it,'" Obama said, according to a source in the meeting. "If we do not get it done this year, we will not get it done anytime soon." ABC News
Funny. And here I thought legislators were elected to represent those people in their district.
Now I know why I don't bother paying attention to the news - it's too depressing to hear about how our "leaders" are doing things.
The issue on which I wanted the Swiss perspective actually had nothing directly to do with Jon's post or its context, but on the idea that American companies are at a global competitive disadvantage because they have the expense of health care for their employees, and therefore their product prices must reflect that cost, while companies in countries where the government pays for health care do not have that expense, so their products can be offered for less.
Personally, I think there's something wrong with that argument, but I can't counter it. I thought someone familiar with a Swiss global business might shed some light on the matter. But maybe no American companies even attempt to make that kind of microscope. It's not a serious enough question on my part to make it worthwhile spending time on, however, as I'm not likely to get into the discussion again with that particular person.
And I think my main point was to say Stephan is not following this post so you won't get an answer for him. My answer to that argument is "Then why does America lead the world in business?" but I know nothing about this stuff.
I don't have data for what Swiss companies pay in taxes, and I doubt it can be compared in a meaningful way with US corporate taxes, since in both countries the taxes vary widely from state to state. I see the argument, but don't know that it's cogent to speak of competitive disadvantage when speaking of one particular point in isolation - when it's hardly possible to look at it in isolation. Perhaps we have an advantage of lower expenditures for our employees' health insurance, but we pay toward our employees' retirement and unemployment insurance, and we can't lay people off in two weeks to cut costs (three months' notice is the norm), so to properly compare regulatory competitive advantage a lot more needs to be taken into consideration.
As a side note, yes, there are US companies making the microscopes we do - several of them, in fact. The market leader (install basis) is a US company.