http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090904/OPINION10/90903086/1111/Carper-s-public-health-option-is-small-business-friendlyI commend Sen. Tom Carper on his Aug. 25 town-hall-by-phone health care forum. Apparently 1,000 people from Wilmington to Selbyville, joined in from the convenience of their homes.
I personally like the idea of the public option Carper is proposing. As a manager of a small business (20 employees), I have seen premiums we pay for each full-time employee increase from under $300 per month four years ago to almost $400 per month. For the longest time, our company absorbed the increases, but we finally had to require employees to pay a percentage through payroll deductions. In addition, our plan's co-pays increased from $15 for primary care and $25 for specialist care to $30 and $50, respectively, over the same four years. The employee portion of outpatient tests, such as X-rays and CT scans, has also risen, causing our employees to put off getting the care they need. Clearly, for us, the costs are out of control.
By allowing small businesses and individuals to join the 8 million federal employees and their dependents already in the program, administrative costs will drop to 3 percent. From a patient perspective, the federal program allows employees to choose a plan from the “exchange,” my employees would have greater choice than we do now.
The plan does not have the paperwork requirements that my current plan does, and that’s a big plus. Additionally, this federal plan might help reduce the profits now realized by private insurance companies (as seen in multimillion dollar executive salaries) because of increased competition.
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Clearly this woman read what the public option is all about and explains every clearly how the public option will benefit small businesses.
I am so happy Carper is supporting the public option that I'm sending him this picture in a frame as a gift:
madinmaryland made that for me - I was actually in the picture too. From left to right is Rep Mike Castle, Sen Ted Kauffman, what was me, Sen Tom Carper and I have no clue who the last one is