Now that the dems are in office...

Why not? Plenty do.

Establish a minimum and a maximum monthly health insurance fee, based on income etc. Everyone pays the minimum, and those who make greater demands on the system move up to the maximum as they draw on the resource.

Yeah, didn't think about that. Income would have to be taken into consideration. I guess the only problem there is that it is often the case that people who make little abuse their bodies much. There have actually been reports trying to blame bad diets on low income. I read about a year ago one such report that said that poor people could not afford to buy fresh vegetables and other healthy food in the supermarket, and therefore were prone to eating McDonald's. ;)

-Le Chaud Lapin-

Can you elaborate on the mechanism by which businesses create unemployment?

John

First Lady Praises McGavick CEO Spin, Ignores McGavick CEO Record

McGavick CEO Record: Profits Over People - McGavick Took $28 Million After Slashing Health and Retirement Benefits and Laying off 1,700 Workers

SEATTLE - Today at a campaign stop in Bellevue, George Bush's wife praised her husband's handpicked candidate for US Senate by heaping praise on his time as CEO of Safeco Insurance. Notably absent from her version of McGavick's history as an insurance CEO was the dramatic cuts to health and retirement benefit, as well as the illegal $28 million golden parachute McGavick collected as a candidate for US Senate on his way out the door.

"As an insurance CEO, McGavick put himself above everyone else and lined his own pockets by slashing health benefits and firing 15% of his workforce," said Kelly Steele, spokesman for Washington State Democrats. "With George Bush at the wheel and the failed Republican leadership driving America off a cliff, the last thing Washingtonians can afford is another loyal rubberstamp for Bush like Mike McGavick."

BIG LAYOFFS FOR WORKERS: Mike McGavick laid off 1700 employees, including

SLASHED HEALTHCARE FOR RETIREES: McGavick drastically raised health care premiums for current retirees from Safeco Insurance, for some by 1100%. The Seattle Times reported about one Safeco retiree who saw his premium go from $70/month to $836, more then he and his wife paid "pay for their monthly property taxes, car insurance, utility bills and food combined." The company also said it wouldn't provide healthcare help to many future retirees. [The Seattle Times, 10/20/03; Safeco Annual Report, 2003, p. 116, emphasis added]

BIG BONUSES FOR McGAVICK: McGavick took almost $4 million in bonuses the years off the big layoffs. [Safeco Proxy Reports]

PLUS A $28 MILLION GOLDEN PARACHUTE: Mike McGavick got a $28 million golden parachute when he left the insurance company this year, after he started running for the US Senate. [AP, 8/11/06]

AND A NO INTEREST LOAN: Mike McGavick, on top of his salary and bonuses, got an interest-free $1 million loan from Safeco insurance in 2001, which he still has outstanding. That type of loan is now illegal after the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate scandal reforms [USA Today, 9/16/02; [Safeco Corp Proxy Statement, 3/28/03, p. 20 ; Safeco Corp Proxy Statement, 3/29/04, p. 20 ; Safeco Corp Proxy Statement, 3/29/05, p.23 ; Safeco Corp Proxy Statement, 3/27/06, p. 27

Maria Cantwell Democrat 1,151,478 (56.7468%)

Mike McGavick Republican 813,243 (40.0780%)

Which is why there is a maximum, related to income. All too often the poor live where there are no good food markets - but a plethora of fast food outlets.

I think they call these "Poverty Islands" ??

political pressure. full employment means higher wages, which means lower profits.

Bye. Jasen

Wow, what a twisted logic. Have you been reading too much Marx lately?

Actually, if you're NOT in a group, that's exactly how health insurance is priced. You've never been there, never done that, yet you claim expert status... typical for socilaists/leftist weenies ;-)

It's NOT "illegally", it's just that the insurance companies would cherry-pick. Insurance is "risk management", a term socialists don't understand.

Wrong again dude... it's called group insurance. Where do you get such misinformation?

Aha! For sure a leftist weenie... forbid hamburgers... ummmm, I think I'll go throw one on the barby ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Ignorance is bliss ;-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

Another socialist fiction. The poor eat more greens and less red meat.

...Jim Thompson

A supersized Big Mac Meal with an enormous coke costs, what, $5 or 6? For that kind of money, you can buy enough potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and grapes to feed four people. Whatever people want to buy, stores will pop up to supply. It's not some corporate conspiracy that decides what local shops and restaurants provide, it's demand.

Fast food *is* scientifically designed to appeal to our primitive salt-fat-starch-meat-MSG sensors, and to overload them. But then, so are fast cars, video games, TV, drugs, and pornography designed to exploit and overload primitive reflexes. Having brains, we are capable of exercizing control; just say no.

So don't blame McDonalds or Starbucks. They go where they are wanted.

John

Just think how the US would be if it were like Europe... gag me with a spoon ;-)

...Jim Thompson

A health insurance consultant. I asked mutitple times to be sure. She said that healthy people attempting to create their own private health fund to the exclusion of those who are unhealthy, even when "unhealthy" was defined as things that could be self-controlled, was illegal in the USA. Made sense. Think how happy insurance companies would be if they could receive, say, $100/month from people that they are pretty sure will consume, on average, only $40/month.

-Le Chaud Lapin-

Look at Alberta and the iron sands project.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

A pleasant place to live?

Well, sorry, but your health insurance consultant was wrong... groups don't have to be public.

...Jim Thompson

I just remembered, the last time I bought anything at a McDonalds was in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in 1993. Ran out of D-Marks, bought a coffee using a $20 bill, got change in D-Marks ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Most of Europe isn't bad for living in. I'd be happy in England or Ireland or Italy, except for the fact that I'm not fluent in any of those languages. France/Germany and further north is less appealing, but certainly livable. None of those places are as suitable as the US for people like you and me who want to do serious electronics our way.

Interesting relationship, when you think about it, the USA and electronics. You might say that the modern USA invented electronics, and electronics invented the modern USA.

John

on

I was thinking in terms of the Democrat-style government suppression of everyone toward the "norm" :-(

...Jim Thompson