Democrats Health Care Plan Incentivizes Businesses That Drop Employee Coverage
Senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy have introduced a new health care bill to the Senate. This bill will keep the same basic government run insurance plan as their previous bill. Yet, this new plan also hits “large” businesses (defined as businesses with over 25 employees!!!) with “fines” of $750 for failing to provide employees with health insurance. The bill’s authors argue that this “fine” will force businesses to provide their employees with health care and will save the government money. According to Senators Christopher Dodd and Ted Kennedy, this bill “virtually eliminates the dropping of currently covered employees from employer-sponsored health plans.”
Senators Dodd and Kennedy are either lying or are unbelievably stupid.
In fact, this bill only encourages employers to drop coverage for their employees. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, “The annual premium for single coverage [employer health plans] averaged over $4,700.“
Under this plan, employers can drop their employees coverage, knowing that the government will pick up the tab. Doing so will result in a “fine” of $750 per full time worker, but will actually result in cost savings around $4000 per employee! This is a massive subsidy for corporations who choose not to insure their employees.
This plan will encourage employers to abandon their private insurance plans knowing that their employees will still be covered. This will lead to a “race to the bottom” among companies because dropping coverage will lead to massive cost savings.
For example, at the end of last year Microsoft employed around 56,000 workers in America. If they were to drop all of their employees’ health care plans, they would be subjected to fines of around $42 million However, considering that the average health care plan costs employers around $4,700 per person, Microsoft would actually save around $221.2 million per year–after paying the “fines” by dropping coverage.
This new bill is a rotten one that will destroy private health insurance. It will cause employers to drop coverage for their employees and will result in more Americans using the government “option.”
This bill will cost Americans a lot of money, will subsidize corporations who drop employee coverage, and will destroy the private insurance industry. This bill will be ironically called the “Affordable Health Choices Act.” Please call your Senator at 1-800-833-6354 and voice your opposition to this bill. It will only take you two minutes.
Americanly Yours,
Phred Barnet
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