3/10/06 Issue in Washington, DC: Health Care

This Morning's CD: Favorite Hymns From Westminster Abbey My co-worker and me had a successful trip meeting with our elected officials in DC. Among the worker rights issues we discussed is one I want to share with my readers: health care and the need for insurance reform. The burden on employee payroll deductions for our health insurance continues to grow and the burden on the employer continues to shrink. In addition, insurance companies are placing more restrictions on our coverage and one of the major changes to further the burden on the employee is our president's proposal to add a third category of Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance coverage. It's called MSA's, or Medical Saving Account. Now the medical savings accounts as we know them have been great. They have been used to help cover, glasses, hearing aids or other things not covered by insurance or medical care not covered by insurance. But the proposal for this new plan is that the employee will have a much lower contribution to pay toward their insurance coverage and the contribution will go into the MSA and that money used BEFORE their insurance kicks in. Therefore, say an employee wants to save money by reducing his insurance payroll deduction in December. In January the employee has a health care emergency and ends up in the hospital. If the employee signed up for $3,000 MSA, the medical bills amounting to $3,000 must be paid by the employee before BC/BS kicks in. Using the example above, remember, it's only January and the employee has only $50 in the MSA. "Too bad", the corporate insurance lobbyists say, "cough up the $3000 or die." If this plan is successful with BC/BS we will see more and more insurance companies implementing similar plans. If the Medicare prescription plan hasn't been bad enough on America's seniors and the disabled, this only adds more icing on the Bush administration's corporate whore's cake! Health Care IS a Moral Value! That's all for today. Gordon