Monday, July 06, 2009

Another Bad Idea Floating around Washington, DC

In the midst of concern that Congress was going to do something detrimental to our nation, like passing Cap & Trade or creating government-run health care, I hadn't noticed another provision slipped into the health care "reform" bill. It would require all businesses with 25 or more employees to carry health insurance for their employers. Such a requirement is an unbearable financial burden for many companies and not possible for others. For example, I work at a company that has more than 25 employees. The company does not provide health insurance because the majority of our employees are insured through their spouse's insurance. As a result, our pool of people who would be covered by a plan is so small that no insurance company wants to cover us. Even if they did, the cost of such a policy is about twice what I currently pay in the "self-enrolled" pool. Requiring our company to provide health insurance for all of its employees is not only unnecessary, but it is also costly, as any policy that its available will be more expensive, not less.
This bill working through Congress is just another in a long line of ideas that our legislators are putting forward that show how out-of-touch many of them are with what life is like in normal America. I wonder how much longer the U.S. can last with this sort of disconnect between reality and what its leaders perceive to reality? Fifty years? Thirty years? I don't know. It's not good, though, and I fear that in thirty years I'll be looking back at my life today and reminiscing about them being the "good old days."

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