Re: MSNBC (Oberg) - Deadly space lessons go unheeded

From: Fred J. McCall (fmccall_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 03:46:33 GMT

JazzMan <No_Spam@airmail.net> wrote:

:Rand Simberg wrote:
:>
:> On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 10:59:14 -0600, in a place far, far away,
:> "Christopher M. Jones" <christopher.m.jones@gmail.com> made the
:> phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:
:>
:> >JazzMan wrote:
:> >> I have what's considered fairly decent insurance through my
:> >> employer, coverage that I could in no way afford on my own
:> >> since it runs upwards of $6,000/year, and even with that my
:> >> annual out of pocket costs are over $3,000. That's a $1,200
:> >> deductible, and the rest is 20% copay up to a maximum copay
:> >> of $1,800 in any given year.
:> >
:> >Here's a quiz for you. Your employer pays "their" share of
:> >your medical insurance, why? Obviously it is because they
:> >consider the value you provide to the company to be worth
:> >that compensation. Will they continue to pay that
:> >contribution if you no longer work there? Obviously not.
:> >The only possible conclusion from these two incredibly
:> >obvious facts is that the "employer contribution" to your
:> >health insurance premiums is, in fact, nothing other than
:> >compensation for employement, just as any wage would be.
:> >The only difference is that it is kept on a different
:> >balance *** so that you do not perceive it to be such.
:>
:> The fact that it's not taxed if your employer pays it, but is taxed if
:> you do, is one of the fundamental problems with the system.
:
:Not only that, but for someone making 5$.15 an hour it doesn't
:matter simply because even if they spent 100% of their net
:income on medical insurance to the exclusion of food, shelter,
:child costs, etc, they still wouldn't be able to get good
:medical care.
:
:I challenge all you allegedly intelligent people here to sit
:down and write out a simple budget using real world numbers
:and show proof that someone making minimum wage can afford
:health insurance and live a minimal life out of the rain on
:at least 1,600 calories a day. Electricity, phone, entertainment,
:and education costs extra, of course.
:
:Hehehe...

Practically nobody who doesn't have parents or a spouse to take care
of them is earning minimum wage. Anyone who is and stays in that job
has bigger problems than health care (unless you consider mental
incompetence 'health care').

Hehehe...