A Trillion Here, a Trillion There, But Still No Universal Health Care

President Obama has signed the $787 billion stimulus package. No one knows, of course, but some observers say that when previously approved bailout money is added to Obama’s package and then added to packages still quickly needed for economic recovery, the total will be somewhere between $3 and $8 trillion. Surely, then, we’ll have universal health care — but no.

In a recent New York Times article dealing with health insurance for employees, several small companies are considered. Small business owners think of their companies as families, and their decisions about health insurance can be wrenching. Although workers in companies with fewer than 25 employees are twice as likely to be uninsured as those in larger companies, small business owners struggle twice as hard to keep health coverage for their people.

They struggle with employee premiums, higher deductibles, individual employee policies, and the reduction of some employee hours to keep other employees covered. Some finally make the excruciating decision to terminate their plans.

I don’t know what to think about the stimulus package. The kind of government intervention being implemented and the unthinkable amount of money being spent on it worry me. But since it’s happening, why not include universal health care? What’s a few more trillion at this point? One argument against it is that such a program requires a lot of time to figure out. More time than the other stimuli that required not much time at all?

After listening to politicians talk about the importance of families, the necessity of change, and the national tragedy of millions of uninsured people in the richest nation on earth, maybe we should listen to one of the small business owners quoted in the Times article: “These are actual people, and they’re very important to me. And I care about them.”

1. 

   health says:

   August 20, 2009 at 7:31 am

   Thanks, I enjoyed your post immensely. It’s nice to see someone writing something worth reading