I wish I knew the answer to our health care crisis. My son, self-employed, wished to change insurance companies. He was rejected by all, except one, because he had a pre-existing condition. He was despairing if he could ever buy insurance again. I was covered when I worked, medical, dental & vision, and believe me, I appreciated it. The premiums were reasonable. That’s what I worry about McCain’s plan, it puts too much power in the hands of the insurance company, who have way too much power already and are only interested in huge profits. Pre-existing condition….fuggetaboutit! There will be so many uninsured people because either they can’t afford the premiums, or some folks would rather buy a big SUV or truck or new huge TV than spend their OWN money on insurance. Then, the rest of us, will, of course, pick up the slack for the uninsured. Not fair, but that’s how it will be.

I’m with amazed and McCain on this one.

Get employers out of the loop. Fix insurance laws.

What if the only ‘affordable’ way to get home owners was to go through your employer? how about auto? Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? If you own a house or drive, you have to have insurance. It can be done.

Being a young woman who has resently entered the workforce and still finishing up my bacholors degree. I am scared to “Death” about getting sick. I get this picture in my head that i go to the doctor for a checkup and end up with a 500 dollar bill at my door step 2 weeks later(even with insurance). Doctors dont let you know how much a proventitive shot cost in their office, and its not like i am going to call up my insurance really fast in the middle of a checkup just to make sure something is covered or i can afford it. I feel like i am walking blindly in to a huge bill.

Employers should not br burdened with the costs of subsidizing health care insurance; the government should be the entity responsible for this affair. How can this be accomplished?? By taxing rich people more, and spending much less on the so-called War On Terror, War On Drugs, and War On Intelligence.

“So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die

Oh baby!
Can’t do this to me baby
Just gotta get out
Just gotta get right outta here!

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters
To me

Any way the wind blows….”

My employer provides medical and dental, but the costs are pretty steep. My wife works at Barnes Jewish. Her montly premiums are much better, deductables are better, etc. So we use the insurance there.

Employers should not be dealing with health insurance costs. Our government should be doing it’s job and coming up with a solution to help the citizens of this country. The charges imposed for medical services are absolutely rediculous to begin with. 3 years ago, I cracked my noggin pretty good while chasing our new puppy and needed a few stitches. 7 to be exact. I was in the ER for an hour, and saw a nurse and doctor for a grand total of 10-15 minutes. The bill was over $700. I had to pay $140 of what the insurance didn’t cover, and they had ‘negotiated’ the price down to about $300. So if I didn’t have insurance, I would have been stuck with a $700 bill. Something’s wrong with that right there. A service should cost XXX dollars. Not XXX dollars for person A and YYY dollars for person B. Insurance companies raise rates, so medical expenses go up, so insurance companies raise rates, so medical expenses go up.

Our government should be spending it’s time and our tax money to address problems HERE such as those that are causing medical expenses and affordable insurance to spiral out of control. Instead, they’re wasting trillions of dollars down a bottomless well that is half way across the world on people that would cowardly kill you, me, women, and children simply because we’re American. The people that supposedly represent us are so out of touch. Every one of them seems to make millions of dollars every single year, how can they pretend to be representing the interests of the people of this country?

We don’t demand that our employers provide us with a place to live or buy our groceries. Why should we demand they pay for our medical insurance?

We don’t have a “health care crisis” in this country. We have a “we should be entitled to everything without having to pay for it” crisis. The cost for a set of crowns or glasses isn’t going to drop one cent just because the Dept of Health and Human Services starts paying the bill.

The current trend is for employers to stop offering insurance as a “benefit”. (I put benefit in parens because individual employees pay the bulk of the premium in reduced salary whether they realize it or not.) That trend could stop but not in a good way, if we make the mistake of electing neo-statist Democrats to the Whitehouse and Congress. Both presidential candidates support punitive compliance rules in the respective national health insurance plans. If employers are suddenly threatened with stiff fines or even prison time for not providing the level of insurance the nannies in DC say they should, do you honestly think their response will be to comply, or will it be to close shop and find a less onerous way of making a living? Look no further than the major manufacturers who’ve set up shop elsewhere for a clue.

My plan would also include a %10000 tax on any LOI of johnh, which would provide the necessary funds to build ANOTHER expansion of I-64/40…..

Amber…. Don’t become too paranoid. The looming health care disaster, like much of the global warming hype, is a ploy the socialists use to induce growth in government programs and control. The vast majority of people in this country have good access to outstanding health care. The options are many, but often involve deciding between a new wide screen TV or upgraded health care coverage. If you honestly assess your situation and take ownership of your own health care you can protect yourself from “walking blindly into a huge bill.” Just don’t fall for the leftists’ propaganda that you are a pitiful victim in need of their guidance and control through bureaucratic government interference in your life. If life turns sour, seek support from family, friends, religious and service organizations, and as an absolute last resort, government safety net programs. Meanwhile give generously of your time and resources in the good times and enjoy the freedoms and choices while they last.

Lots of people here seem to believe everything is fine. There is no health care crisis. The mortgage crisis is overblown. Jobs are plentiful and inflation is low. Some would say these people choose not to see the pain that many American’s feel on a daily basis. I think it goes deeper than that – they don’t care.

No matter how wretched life gets for some of their fellow Americans, they will rationalize why it’s all that persons fault. These are the people who not only fight viciously against any expansion of help for the poor – they want to gut what few programs we have now. If they were “in charge” they would cut every welfare program, aid to dependent children, medicare, medicaid, unemployment, job assistance, social service – Everything - and then would cut the tax rate on the highest income people.

Of course, they won’t be really happy until they blather on about how their tax cuts for the rich will “trickle down” to the poor, and how cutting medicare for children will force them to become better citizens. Because in the end, it’s not enough to walk by the poor and the sick and dismiss them with a contemptuous “Get a job, you slob” - they still want to feel good about themselves when they do it.

I find that dental and vision insurance isn’t worth the premiums. As you say, dental isn’t meant to cover catastrophic. Thus, the premiums you pay are not worth any discount a dentist would provide for insurance for routine things such as examinations, x-rays, and cleanings.

With vision care, I don’t think it covers opthamalogic problems–those are covered by your medical insurance. You can go to any local eyeglass shop during a sale and get the same price you would with the insurance,sans the premium!

I can’t say I completely disagree with those who balk at employer-provided health insurance. For one thing, it is something that keeps people in jobs they hate or from changing careers. But, more importantly, such a move by employers might need the thing to happen to make single payer health care come to fruition.