Who Should Decide Your Health Care Choices, You or Your Boss?

[yurbud]

If the Democrats don't make a talking point out of that title, they should be fired for incompetence.

Another way to put it: when it comes to a conflict between you and your boss, the GOP will side with your boss every time.

It just blows my mind that the Republicans thing the your employer should get to choose what kind of medical coverage you should get based on the boss's religious or moral beliefs. Does one have to defer one's own religion or morality to your boss? I can't believe they are actually proposing it.

What if your boss is a Jehovah's Witness? Should you be denied a blood transfusion? What if your boss is an Orthodox Jew? Does that mean you can't go to the doctor of Saturday? What if your boss is morally against vaccines? Does that mean you can't get vaccination coverage for your children? And your boss gets to determine if you get birth control coverage? Give me a break!

I'm beginning to think that this is all a distraction so that we don't focus on the fact that Republicans caused this depression are currently in and they want to distract us so we don't remember they are the part of Bush. Every day they become more and more ridiculous.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13355?destination=node%2F13355

[HockeyMom]

1. That is precisely the point

Your bosses religion trumps yours? They have freedom of religion, but you DON'T? On the issue of contraception, it is CATHOLICS who are opposed to it. What if you are a Lutheran? YOU have to live under the teachings of the Catholic Church?

[yurbud]

2. what's most ironic is CATHOLICS aren't opposed to birth control--catholic PRIESTS are.

that's the problem when your organizational chart was made up in the Dark Ages--it won't be very responsive to bottom up ideas.

[area51]

3. +1

The crux of the problem: you shouldn't be dependent on a boss for giving you access to health care.

"Employer-based health insurance has always been a bad idea. Your life should not depend on who you work for." -- T. McKeon

We need single payer health care.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people.

Republican '93 plan

[font face="courier"]"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."[/font]

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[font face="times"]"Any proposal that sticks with our current dependence on for-profit private insurers ... will not be sustainable. And the new law will not get us to universal coverage ...." -- T.R. Reid, The Healing of America[/font]

"Despite the present hyperbole by its supporters, this latest effort will end up as just another failed reform effort littering the landscape of the last century." --John Geyman, M.D., Hijacked! The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform

[yurbud]

4. from your lips to elected democrats ears!

[Igel]

5. Negotiation.

That's what often happens when rights conflict. That, or the person with the largest number of rights or the most basic natural right at risk wins or should win.

Most of the argumentation at this point involves defining "right" or "natural right" or some such term of art. Most such argumentation is, IMHO, ultimately specious. For example: I think that people have a right to engage in sexual activity. Perhaps the government should be involved in providing partners. And if nobody wants to accept payment for servicing certain clients, there's always the draft. What, people don't have a right to engage in sex with those they want to? ... See how easy it is to twist definitions around, reinterpret quantification and pronominal reference, and generally make things so confused that a "right" is suddenly an imposition and something that you desire is suddenly something another is compelled to provide?



As it is, most employees would want free health care that has no deductible and covers 100% of any care they want.

Most employers want rather less. The stingiest want none, but I haven't actually ever run across one of those in 30 years of being in the labor force. Most care to some extent because they're human; others care because it's a big part of the compensation package (thanks to the way the tax code's written).

My employer doesn't determine my health coverage, not directly. It's part of a large consortium of similar employers who've contracted with a large insurance company to provide a spectrum of plans. The employer contributes a fixed amount for each employee--or, if you opt out entirely, you get the cash (and pay taxes on it). You pick your plan and pay the difference between the plan you pick and the amount your employer pays.

[midnight]

6. How far back to the stone age do we intend to be taken to by this group in Washington?

[dipsydoodle]

7. In the instances you've quoted

doesn't it just mean you would chose carefully who you work for ?

[yurbud]

11. especially right now, how many choices do most people have?

Which is another reason health care should be decoupled from the employer-employee relationship.

[dipsydoodle]

12. We've had it since 1948

Its called the NHS - I'm UK. Get with the program.

[yurbud]

13. if you're offering asylum, you'll need a bigger island for all of us yanks

[cbrer]

8. It should be a collaborative effort

That can include employers, workers, local communities and health care professionals. In Savannah Ga., SBG (Savannah Business Group) has negotiated services and fees.
Obviously that solution can't work for everyone. But creativity and inclusion can ease the financial burden.

[yurbud]

15. it's kind of unsettling to think my boss would know about my last prostate exam

or any STD's someone has had, their abortions, or anything like that just because we work for them.

[cbrer]

16. Doctor patient priviledge

Was never broached to my knowledge. The program was set up to deal with finances only. It is a crime to allow unauthorized access to your records in Georgia. My doctor had a standard form that required his and my signature to release that information to anyone besides the insurance administrator.

[yurbud]

17. I wasn't referring to your program in particular just the general idea of involving employers in

health care.

[cbrer]

18. Employer = $

That's usually about it, no? Are you suggesting the superiority of some sort of single payer system?

[yurbud]

19. of course that's superior. If it's a private based system, it can still be decoupled

from employers choosing plans and levels of coverage.

[Bill USA]

9. RECOMMENDED!

[JoePhilly]

10. My boss's secretary should do it ... she makes all the important decisions anyway ...

And she's real nice. Contraceptives would definitely be covered.

Plus, she knows all the company processes, and she knows all the forms that have to be filled out for EVERYTHING ... and better ... she can get the VP's secretary to sign-off for the VP when we need an approval at the VP's level.

That VP doesn't make any important decisions either. He mostly walks around asking questions that prove he has no idea what anyone in the company actually does.

I work in high tech, but I get the sense that our VP thinks we make sneakers. And no one wants to tell him the truth.

The other day, I told him that I invented the Nike's Swoosh and he gave me a promotion. Wait til he finds out that I also invented the light-up sneakers that little kids wear ... I'll be on the fast path to CEO.

[yurbud]

14. the secretary should schedule neutering for all the execs and see if they notice

before it's too late.