The Pankian Metaphor 3013

that included:

If you can't get access to health care, there are no health care expenses. You can get insurance against events that never happen at *very* inexpensive rates.

On what basis do you make that buttertion? The name of your primary care physician is on your insurance card for a *reason*.

Insurance against something that cannot happen is very cheap. I doubt I am the only one who manages to get in to see my doctor.

Try to get a doctor's appointment, and they will ask you who is your insurance company. If you say you're uninsured, they won't accept you as a patient. If you say you're insured, they will ask you if you have a signed referral form from your primary care physician.

Baloney. Tell your doctor's office that you've a diabetic and you've just injured your foot. Suddenly, an office that doesn't have any appointments available for the next three days will tell you to come in today.

You've missed the fact that this subthread is about insurance?

It's $295-year, as anyone with three neurons, five minutes, and the gumption of a snail could have determined:

I *have*. And you have, too, except for the part about thinking.

If the small businesses need to be subsidized by their employees, they aren't keeping the economy healthy.

In 1980, I tried to hire Danny away from the big company in town. His wife said no, because I didn't offer insurance. If I get group insurance, would he come with me? His wife again said no, because small businesses tend to go out of business for various reasons, including the rest or divorce of the owner, and where would they be then? The big company would be around forever.

Five years later, the big company in town closed their plant, and put 5000 employees on the street. Danny came to me, looking for a job. I'd grown from three employees to twenty-seven, but you know, the small companies that were selling to the big company were laying off employees or going out of business. Consumers that weren't unemployed were skittish, so companies selling to consumers weren't making many sales, and those who sold on credit were having to buy back contracts from the finance companies.

But you think small business keeps the economy healthy? Balderdash.

When a market is new and fast-growing, the businesses in those markets are also new and fast-growing, and they hire a lot of people to do things manually because they don't have the capital to automate - and until the market is somewhat stable, you don't know how much capacity the equipment needs to have, anyway.

Big businesses have established and stable markets, so they increase profits by automating processes and getting rid of expensive employees. But many small businesses - tool and die shops, for instance, or local restaurants, are established and stable. It's not size that determines whether a business is creating new jobs - it's whether it is part of a new, fast-growing market.

And small businesses don't keep the economy healthy. They're the tail that the economy wags.

Again, there seems to be smoke coming from the patch pockets on your blue jeans.

We're currently covered by COBRA, so we pay 2% more than my wife's former employer paid. It's fairly decent coverage, and the monthly bill is $511.30 for *family* coverage.

The insurance in mandatory, so your employee has to pay for it, one way or another. If he takes a cut in pay and gets free insurance, not only can you get more insurance for the money by buying insurance in bulk, but there are considerable payroll tax savings.

-- AmishHosting.com