Health finance reform needed

The behavior of opponents of health reform is completely embarrassing and also seems to miss the main point -- our current system of financing health care in this country is completely unsustainable.

With the increases of between 10 and 20 percent annually for private insurance coverage, eventually all small businesses will have to stop subsidizing employee health insurance. Already many companies, large and small, are in effect reducing employees' wages by increasing the amount each must contribute for health insurance -- a process that will only increase over time and harm the average American's standard of living.

Meanwhile, those without insurance often use emergency rooms for their care and end up with hospital bills that they can't pay and therefore harm their credit or end up in bankruptcy. Then the cost of uncompensated care is passed on to those with insurance.

Our public health insurance system is also a mess. Medicaid seems to be chronically underfunded, resulting in large numbers of providers refusing to accept Medicaid coverage. Medicare reimbursements reportedly are also insufficient, yet the expenses of Medicare continues to rise and, with the upcoming spike in the 65 and over population, will bankrupt our federal government by about 2020 without more cost controls being put in place.

Solving these problems is far from easy, or else solutions would have been enacted long ago -- but the status quo is not acceptable. Rather than ranting and raving, the opponents attending town hall meetings should discuss constructive suggestions to these problems. All Americans need to have access to decent, affordable health care, and those Americans with the means (and desire) to pay for "premium" health care services should be free to spend in that manner.

Source: Baltimoresun ...Read More ! ⇒

Small Business Optimism Continues to Drop

Proprietors of small businesses have become more pessimistic as their worries grow about whether business conditions will improve in the next six months, according to a survey released this week.

Reuters reports that the National Federation of Independent Business said the index fell in July for the second straight month, dropping 1.3 points to 86.5.

Small businesses produce half the private GDP, employ the bulk of the private sector work force and generate most of the new jobs created, and now face a plethora of proposed taxes: unemployment, gas, cap and trade, NFIB said.

"Now they are expected to finance the new experiments of Congress and the president such as healthcare reform, auto industry bailouts and union pension fund bailouts," said William Dunkelberg, the NFIB's chief economist.

"Even with good news on the economy, it's hard to be optimistic—and commit funds to the future—with these prospects facing small-business owners," said Dunkelberg.

Only 5 percent of small-business owners think now is a good time to expand their business, and more firms expect their real sales volumes to decline than grow, the group said.

The percent of owners expecting business conditions to deteriorate lost 10 percentage points from June, 15 points from May, this in spite of increasingly positive signs that the economy is improving, the group said.

Plans to invest in inventory improved, but remained negative, with 5 percent more planning to reduce stocks rather than to increase them, NFIB said.

"The recession is wearing Main Street folks down," said Dunkelberg. "And unfortunately, lawmakers in Washington are doing more to scare small business owners than to reassure them of an economic recovery."

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