It was inevitable that as the healthcare bill flows through congress we would start to see how it affects each of us individually. I am a wheelchair user and work for a manufacturer of healthcare equipment and have just been informed that there is a trickle down effect of what is being proposed.
Photo Courtesy: Flickr deviousmoose
To pay for all this new healthcare they are proposing a tax on medical devices that is paid at the manufacturer level which means the average American would not see this tax. This is similar to a value added tax (VAT) used in Europe. This is a tax that is not tax deductible so the manufacturer has to figure out a way to pay for it.
To pay for this tax (which will most likely be made retroactive to the first of the year), we, as a manufacturer have to accrue this expense. Since pricing and budgets are already set for the year, the money has to come from somewhere. Our company has suspended our 401K matching contributions, canceled merit pay increases for management, and put a hiring freeze in anticipation of this bill becoming law. We may also be forced to do more manufacturing in China and Mexico, reduce employee benefits, increase prices to the consumers, reducing research and development.
So who will suffer from this part of the healthcare bill? Obviously we, the employees feel it right away. We may feel it even more if additional benefits are reduced. We may have to shift more manufacturing outside of the USA. This results in our jobs being at stake. We may have to raise prices which in turn makes healthcare more expensive and directly affects our customers. Without new research and development, we do not keep innovating, which does not sound all that important unless you think about all the improvements made to our lives in the past few decades.
Is this healthcare bill a good thing? It really depends on who you talk to. Of course if you do not have health insurance it may be terrific. It will take from the have’s and give to the have not’s. Isn’t this the way government works? Perhaps, but when it comes after another employee’s benefits and jobs you may see this issue a little differently. It will cost America jobs. It will move American jobs overseas.
I have watched the debate being played out in the media and heard one member of congress loosely comment in regards to the new tax “they (the manufacturers) have to figure out how to make it work”. This is a very true statement that does not look at the consequences. Our company does not have the wiggle room when it comes to profits like a Microsoft or Google has. We are not AIG, GM or GMAC and will not get any bailouts. We make a small profit to keep the company going.
What do you think of the health care bill? How will it affect you, your family, or your company?
I think any *attempt* at healthcare reform is a good thing–unfortunately this one has been so watered down it has become in comedian Bill Maher’s words “Congress giving a giant %*@$-#$% to the insurance industry”.
I much prefer the *healthcare fantasy world* in Denmark where you go to your doctor and get a handful of prescriptions for things like a wheelchair, cushion, standing frame, reacher, grabber, etc. and take them to a state run medical store–like an Abilities Expo, and add therapists, and orthotists, wheel in with the prescriptions, go through the store as the therapists measure, and fit based on what works for the client–not what insurance policy they do or don’t have–and wheel out with all of your DME needs met. Priceless!
The most important consideration when discussing health care reform is, What is constitutional? Our Constitution was written to protect the life, liberty and property of each U.S. citizen. Any redistributionist scheme that proposes to forcibly steal money from one person/business/sector and give it to another is clearly unconstitutional. I am a severely disabled person, but that doesn’t give me the right to ask the government to forcibly extract money from another person so that I can have it. Having a need doesn’t entitle the needy to steal. Any “right” that deprives another person of their life, liberty or property, is not a right.
There are many reforms to health care that can be made without violating individual rights. Purchasing health insurance across state lines, which is currently illegal, would allow businesses to compete for customers in the same way that auto insurers do, which would result in lowered prices and improved quality. The very existence of HMOs is due to government interference in the health care market in the 1970s, and the coupling of employment and health care resulted from the 1974 ERISA law, which gives employers tax benefits for providing health care.
Eliminating government intervention would do for the health care market what it has done for many other sectors: it would reduce costs, improve quality, and result in a much happier American consumer.
First thing I ask myself is has our government been successful in running Medicare and Social Security? I my opinion the answer is absolutely not. Then I ask myself how many government run programs have beens successful? My answer- I can’t think of any that have been very succcessful- US Postal Service is struggling (so postage just goes up). Medi Cal in Calif. approves equipment and then short changes the providers because we have a budget crisist. Now our politicans want start a new system for “Health Care” when they have not figured out how fix the problems that already exist?? I’m sorry for those that don’t have Health Care, but I don’t believe this Health Care Reforme is the solution to the problem.
The politcians that run our Congress and Senate do not use any of health care plans that will be affected by the “Health Care Bill”. The Congress and Senate have entirely different health care benefits and retirement benfits compared to the plans they provide to the public. In fact they work a minumum of 4 years and have a retirement plan like no other in the country. The common working folks continue to bear the burdens while the politicans reap the benefits of sitting in office. If the program they are asking us to swallow is so great, why haven’t they adopted it amongst themseleves and test piloted the system (could it be fear of failure?). Fix what is broken first before adding more programs.
Reforming the U.S. health care system is a moral and economic necessity for this country but it has the odds stacked against it. The insurance industry is among the great forts of power in the world, having feasted for decades on middle class Americans, and they wont give up even part of their grip without virtual war. Most of the horror stories about government meddling in individual lives and bureaucratic death committees deciding the fates of the elderly were contrived and broadcast by this most powerful of special interest groups. Most of the anger at attempts to relieve average Americans of rapacious care costs was and is manufactured by insurance interests. How can an attempt to help average Americans cope with health costs and help Americans approach the level of care most of the rest of the developed world enjoys be so reviled? We are misled and misinformed by those motivated by a mountainous greed.
One of the fundamental reasons that Americans spend more than any other people in the world for health care, and yet have shorter lifespans and almost epidemic rates of chronic degenerative disease, is poor diet. Our government subsidizes unhealthy, processed foods, such as corn and corn-derived sweeteners, antibiotic- and hormone-laden meats, and soybeans, and this subsidization has allowed fast food and highly-processed junk food to become staples in the average American’s diet. It has been shown repeatedly that once this processed, high-carbohydrate Western diet is introduced to a culture, epidemic Type II diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and other degenerative illness quickly follow. Until Americans begin to make individual choices to take control of their health and to return to healthy eating (non-starchy vegetables, lean meat, healthy fats), we could spend ten times as much money on health care, and our nation’s health would still continue to decline.
As long as we rely on health insurance to cover every doctor visit and minor procedure, our health care costs will continue to increase – what would be the motivation for an individual not to maximize their use of these “free” services? We should work to restore health insurance to what it originally was: protection against catastrophic illness or injury; routine visits and procedures should be paid out-of-pocket by the individual consumer. This will make each person accountable for the services they use and would provide incentive among providers to reduce prices to affordable levels, rather than the current never-ending escalation of costs that are paid by insurance companies and not “felt” by the people using these services.
I think that the health care plan that the U.S. government is trying to push through will leave a lot to be desired. I think they should make the health care go according to income levels *after* taxes, so that nobody is paying more than they can literally afford. Other countries have had good working health plans in effect for years. Sweden is one of them. It seems like the US is trying to figure out a plan without even looking to other countries for help in the matter and I’m very afraid Americans will all be screwed when our government finally passes something.
Thanks for the comments. Somewhere in this mess we should be able to find a solution to help both those with insurance and those without.