Monday, June 22, 2009
Suvey says...
We have gone over a lot of ideas, but we need to gauge the reaction of the American people. The best folks I know for doing that are the people at Employee Benefits Research Institute (http://www.ebri.org) who do this on an annual basis. According to their latest press release on the subject:
“Survey respondents were asked their reaction to a number of options to expand coverage “in order to make sure all Americans have access to health insurance.” Here are the results:
• 88 percent support (strongly or somewhat) allowing major health insurance companies to offer national plans that anyone can purchase.
• 83 percent support a new public plan option that anyone could purchase.
• 80 percent support requiring insurers to cover anyone who applies—so-called “guaranteed issue.”
• 75 percent support expanding Medicare and Medicaid.
• 75 percent support some form of an employer mandate to subsidize coverage.
• 68 percent support a mandate requiring individuals to obtain coverage, but only 22 percent support fines for those who do not comply.”[1]
Since 88 percent support allowing major health insurance companies to offer national plans to the general public, I wonder how many would support purchasing at the “feature” level?
But let’s look at some numbers, shall we? According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis[2] the Gross Domestic Product for 2008 will be $14,246,600,000.000.00 which is a 3.3% increase over 2007. Now let us look at the President’s Budget[3] the Proposed Budget by Category racks up $3,591,000,000,000.00. When we add $1,245,000,000,000.00 for Funding Levels for Appropriated (“Discretionary”) Programs and $8,249,000,000,000.00 for Federal Government Financing and Debt, we see the budget at $13,085,000,000,000.00. This would be great if our tax system was one of “What did you make?”; “Send it in”. Then we could actually pay for the budget. And now we want to add another $1,400,000,000,000.00 for nationalized healthcare.
Makes you wonder if the majorities listed above had any idea about the cost.
Later…
[1] Employee Benefits Research Institute. 12th Annual Health Confidence Survey:. News from EBRI. Paul Fronstin, John MacDonald, 11 June 2009. Web. 19 June 2009..
[2] "BEA National Economic Accounts." U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) - bea.gov Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2009..
[3] "The President's Budget." Welcome to the White House. Office of Management and Budget, n.d. Web. 19 June 2009.
“Survey respondents were asked their reaction to a number of options to expand coverage “in order to make sure all Americans have access to health insurance.” Here are the results:
• 88 percent support (strongly or somewhat) allowing major health insurance companies to offer national plans that anyone can purchase.
• 83 percent support a new public plan option that anyone could purchase.
• 80 percent support requiring insurers to cover anyone who applies—so-called “guaranteed issue.”
• 75 percent support expanding Medicare and Medicaid.
• 75 percent support some form of an employer mandate to subsidize coverage.
• 68 percent support a mandate requiring individuals to obtain coverage, but only 22 percent support fines for those who do not comply.”[1]
Since 88 percent support allowing major health insurance companies to offer national plans to the general public, I wonder how many would support purchasing at the “feature” level?
But let’s look at some numbers, shall we? According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis[2] the Gross Domestic Product for 2008 will be $14,246,600,000.000.00 which is a 3.3% increase over 2007. Now let us look at the President’s Budget[3] the Proposed Budget by Category racks up $3,591,000,000,000.00. When we add $1,245,000,000,000.00 for Funding Levels for Appropriated (“Discretionary”) Programs and $8,249,000,000,000.00 for Federal Government Financing and Debt, we see the budget at $13,085,000,000,000.00. This would be great if our tax system was one of “What did you make?”; “Send it in”. Then we could actually pay for the budget. And now we want to add another $1,400,000,000,000.00 for nationalized healthcare.
Makes you wonder if the majorities listed above had any idea about the cost.
Later…
[1] Employee Benefits Research Institute. 12th Annual Health Confidence Survey:. News from EBRI. Paul Fronstin, John MacDonald, 11 June 2009. Web. 19 June 2009.
[2] "BEA National Economic Accounts." U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) - bea.gov Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2009.
[3] "The President's Budget." Welcome to the White House. Office of Management and Budget, n.d. Web. 19 June 2009.
