Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hillary's Plan won't work

I had such high hopes for Hillary's health plan. Too many Americans don't have health insurance. Too many Americans find preventive care to be too expensive. American business is at a competitive disadvantage internationally because we are saddled with high health insurance costs, while businesses in other countries with national health aren't.

But Hillary's plan doesn't help kids fresh out of college with no employment. It doesn't help those working part-time to make ends meet. And it saddles all businesses with more health insurance expenses. Small businesses cannot afford this.

We need a plan that helps the lower income and middle income folks. We need a plan that helps people get preventive care, while protecting them from catastrophic losses when they get really sick. We need a plan that doesn't place an undue burden on small and medium businesses.

How about a plan that removes all payroll taxes for people earning under the poverty level? Everyone could take that savings and put it into a federal health plan or into a retirement fund. To cover the shortfall in social security funding, the government could take the income cap off payroll taxes. The federal plan would cover preventive/wellness care and insure against catastropic loss.