[Rhodes22-list] Health Care (Political)

Thu Sep 25 10:58:44 EDT 2008

Brad,
I like your plan.  Make people accountable for their own health care
decisions and payments?  What a radical idea!  And you do bring up the
not-to-be-talked about situation of end of life situations, where scads
of money are spent on people who don't have much longer to live.  But
what politician, health care provider, or insurance company will tackle
that one?  

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Brad Haslett
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 10:44 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Health Care (Political)

Andrew,

Kudos to you for treating your employees well.  My employer provides
me with gold-plated health care (my part is about $140 per month) but
they have 200,000+ employees to spread the risk among.

The health care issue was solved by me and a doctor from Middle
Tennessee last Spring on a cruise ship from Alaska.  All it took was a
bottle of scotch and some good cigars. Unfortunately, we didn't have a
stenographer to take notes.  TennCare, Tennessee's attempt at
universal health care, "broke the bank".  Our Governor, Phil Bredesen
- Democrat, made his millions in the health-care industry and he's a
smart guy.  He couldn't make it work without seriously cutting back on
benefits and eligibility.

So here's the plan that the good doctor and I came-up with.  Encourage
everyone to participate in HSA's, health savings plans, that are
already on the books.  Give everyone a $2500 tax credit on the front
end to fund their personal account.  After that, the first $2500 of
costs each year on you, no matter what.  Set a hard limit on total
lifetime expenditures (mine is currently at 2 million with my
employer). If 90 year old grandma's life can be extended another 90
days by spending another million bucks and she's only got $25 left in
her account, well, it must be time for granny to go.  You have to
solve the cost issues at the far end of the tails of this problem to
make it work.

What's next, nuclear proliferation?  Naw, you got that one, I'm headed
to the hangar.

Brad

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Andrew Collins
<sailingvesselcarmen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Guys
>
> Health care is not entirely economic. Having health care is good,
right? I
> think we can agree on that.
>
> As an Enlightened Capitalist, socially liberal, econically
> prudent/conservative, admitted fallow traveller and small business
owner, I
> pay for 85% of the healthcare cost for all of my employees. In NYC no
less,
> which is more than double the cost in adjacent regions like New
England and
> the mid-Atlantic (I know, I checked).
>
> Why do I break ranks with Wal-mart?  Let me count the ways:
> 1. It is the right thing to do.
> 2. I can't sleep at night if I don't do it.
> 3. It makes my employees able to have families and live like the
civilized
> people they are. They need not fear becoming ill.
> 4. It makes them loyal, and makes them less likely to quit, so I
profit by
> retaining the institutional knowledge they have in-house.
> 5. It makes my firm more attractive than other consulting firms when a
> candidate must choose between firms. Benefits are important.
> 6. All of the above works, we have very little turn over, the quality
of our
> product is recognized by our stable client roster.
>
> One man's plan
>
> Andrew
> EC
> sv Carmen
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>> Rob,
>>
>> Did you take the time to poke around the website of the movie?
>> Liberal claptrap. I don't have the time or energy to debunk all the
>> silliness printed there but I will take on WalMart.  First, I love
>> WalMart, probably because I'm a heathen redneck and like the fact
that
>> I can buy bullets in the gun department while my wife is shopping for
>> tomatoes, but whatever.  WalMart could offer its employees health
>> care, hell, they COULD offer them free housing.  You'd pay more for
>> goods at WalMart but then you don't shop there anyway, right?  Does
>> the farmer's market where you buy your arugula offer health care?
>> WalMart is a business and one that is very well run (and besides, if
>> my 401K doesn't recover I may want to work there someday).
>>
>> Do they have an economics department on your campus?  Maybe you
should
>> broaden your education some.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 7:56 AM, Lowe, Rob <rlowe at vt.edu> wrote:
>> > Too bad it's too true to be funny. - rob
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
>> > [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Brad
Haslett
>> > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 7:01 PM
>> > To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
>> > Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Re publican's Web Site! (Political)
>> >
>> > Ed,
>> >
>> > That's Funny!
>> >
>> > Brad
>> >
>> > On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 5:49 PM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net>
wrote:
>> >>
>> >> See:  http://imvotingrepublican.com/
>> >>
>> >> And I quote, 'stir the pot'.
>> >>
>> >> Ed K
>> >> Greenville, SC, USA
>> >> --
>> >> View this message in context:
>> >
http://www.nabble.com/Republican%27s-Web-Site%21-%28Political%29-tp19659
>> > 662p19659662.html
>> >> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> >>
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