"the average cost for a health plan is about $7,000 per year, or $583/month,"
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Zoom, ok lets play with your numbers. Why is this the current cost?

Zoom, are you referring to the current system we have now where no one is refused care? The same system that people from around the world come to for a procedure they can't get in their own country?

Who was the last politician from our country that went to another country for care...because our system is so bad?

You say you wish you could get paid to explain to me about our current system, I suggest you learn about our system and the laws and restrictions that have shaped it into the way it is now, by government, before you start the echo (that is what you are doing) that only government can fix the problem.

"Zoom, are you sure your not a lobbiest?"

I wish. Then I would be getting paid to explain the state of our health care system to people like RAF.

Limit some? Are you independantly wealthy? When the average cost for a health plan is about $7,000 per year, or $583/month, no, you don't have a choice if you are employed.

"Considering an employer might pay 80% or more of the cost of insurance, you really have no other choice."
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This might limit some in a financial aspect, but to declare no other choice is a false position.

If you are employed, who has a choice of insurance? Many companies will not give a credit for opting out of their insurance plans, as an incentive for you to join, so thay can have the largest pool of people possible in the plan. Considering an employer might pay 80% or more of the cost of insurance, you really have no other choice.

No it was not about smoking. It is amusing that you think others are not aware that smoking “can” be unhealthy. I guess no one told Henry Allingham about that. He just passed away this week and was 113 years old; in case you didn’t know…and he was a smoker and a drinker.

As a consumer of insurance if you don’t like to share your burden with over weight people who smoke feel free to shop around. This still is America were you can make your own choice…lets just hope it stays that way.

"I missed that part in the US Constitution where the collective focus of modifying legal personal behavior was written."

I assume you are referring to smoking. Smoking is unhealthy, in case you didn't know. If you can smoke and remain healthy, then no problem. If, however, you develop high blood pressure, for example, then you should pay a higher premium until your blood pressure returns to a healthy level. Your doctor will prescribe blood pressure medication, and tell you to stop smoking (and lose weight if you are overweight, and eat healthier, etc.). How you choose to deal with it is your option, but everybody else in your health care plan should not have to pay for the consequences of your unhealthy habit if you develop complications down the road. The higher premium should be an incentive to get healthier, but If you choose not too, then that higher premium will help pay for your other medical problems that are statistically sure to come about later.

"Will the govt. be giving tax breaks to the healthy, or taxing more based on your weight and health?"

To clarify, the health screening is part of your health insurance plan, not taxes. Obama prefers a public/private option, so if you like your current insurance, you don't have to choose from the public option.

Note that everything I mentioned is not yet part of any health care plans being discussed in Congress. Health screening is working to reduce costs for businesses, however, so why not incorporate it into the national health care option?

"What exactly would be the incentive? Will the govt. be giving tax breaks to the healthy, or taxing more based on your weight and health? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, just asking."

Yes, it should be monetary, just like many businesses have been doing for decades. Note that many businesses and state employers make the testing mandatory. Also, weight shouldn't really be a criteria. The goals are based on quantifiable measurements, like I mentioned earlier (glucose, blood pressure, etc.). While you can be overweight and have normal glucose and blood pressure, weight is often a cause of those conditions. The goal is to reduce glucose and blood suger (just examples), and losing weight might accomplish that. If you don't want to lose weight, or if you're not overweight, then take whatever medication your doctor prescribes. Either way, you are fixing problems early, before they develop into worse (more expensive) conditions down the road (heart disease, kidney roblems, etc). Many people don't even know they have high glucose or blood pressure, for example.

I missed that part in the US Constitution where the collective focus of modifying legal personal behavior was written.

In order to reduce costs, many businesses already require yearly health screenings, and change your benefit based on preventable problems like high blood suger, high blood pressure, high cholesteral, etc. This provides an incentive to eat healthier, lose weight, stop smoking, etc., which in turn reduces health care costs for the business, and increases productivity. Hhmmm, if we only had a national health care system that would provide an incentive for everybody to get healthier...

+1 Puffer.......I don't know why we can't structure health insurance like other types of insurance. With auto insurance, if you have a bad driving record, you pay more because of the risk associated with it. Fat people care less about their health than someone who is fit and exercises on a regular basis. Either force them to drop the weight or hit them with a surcharge that will hopefully drain their Micky D's funds.......

"Take it from the folks who actually pay for their health care. The current system is broken."
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What an ignorant statement. If you have knowledge of what you think others pay in comparison to what you think you pay provide it, otherwise making silly comments adds nothing to the conversation and shows your lack of knowledge = Ignorance.

The leading cause of death in the US according to the CDC is heart disease, which obesity is directly linked to. I'm on the obesity kick because it is TRUE. Fat people are a drain on our health care system.

Is there a study that you have read that directly links our nations health care to infant mortality and the populations' general health? Maybe it is because we are a lazy, fat nation that would rather take a pill or have surgery to lose weight rather than eating healthy and exercising. And maybe that is a part of why health care costs continue to rise. If there weren't all these health issues relating to being overweight, maybe insurance wouldn't cost so much.

Yes, everyone deserves basic health care. Unless you're going to stop people at the emergency room door if they don't have coverage, you're going to pay for those that don't have it, one way or another.

Unfortunately, those that don't have coverage rarely get preventitive care, so those problems that could get fixed early with a doctor visit and medication instead worsen until emergency care is needed. Which is more expensive, preventitive care, or emergency care?

The U.S. has the highest cost of health care for any industrialized nation, yet we rank 14th or 15th in areas like infant mortality. All those countries that spend less and have healthier populations have some form of nationalized health care.

since when do we "Deserve" healthcare?? I thought you Earned it?!! At least that's how we've always done it, and I for one do not want the government involved in it! If you don't work, don't complain about not having coverage, pay for it yourself! we've always paid our own way and I'm tired of all these bleeding heart liberals who think we should all be equal, go get a job and work for your coverage, don't expect me to pay for it.

So, you're afraid of the POTENTIAL for large costs, even though there is no evidence of said costs. Sounds familiar...Bush doctrine? The current system allows health care costs to rise disproportionately every year, and you're worried about what MIGHT happen if we did something different? Take it from the folks who actually pay for their health care. The current system is broken.

"No where in that summary, for a bill that isn't even complete yet, does it say there will be large costs to small businesses, or massive job losses."
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Bills never say there will be large cost...bills only provide the law/structure to make these things possible. If the director of the CBO can see it, why can't you?

I find the TV commercials that are warning us not to let the government take away our heath care rights hilarious. With our current system we have no rights. The heath insurance industry is a scam.

Given the choice I will take a bureaucrat between me and my doctor over having a post claim underwriter, who gets bonuses for denying services, any day.

There are a bunch of leftists on this string that have never run a business (but I repeat myself) telling us how little the huge new taxes and mandates wouldn't affect small businesses.

Much like they said that raising the minimum wage would INCREASE employment. How's that working out?

What a joke.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10430

Of course, RAF picks and chooses what fits his particular views. Why did you leave off the last bit?

"Requiring employers to offer health insurance—or pay a fee if they do not—is likely to reduce employment, ALTHOUGH THE EFFECT WOULD PROBABLY BE SMALL." (emphasis mine)

Here is the summary:

"The overall impact on labor markets, however, is difficult to predict. Although economic theory and experience provide some guidance as to the effect of specific provisions, large-scale changes to the health insurance system could have more extensive repercussions than had previously been observed and also may contain numerous pieces that would interact—affecting labor markets in significant but potentially OFFSETTING ways." (emphasis mine)

No where in that summary, for a bill that isn't even complete yet, does it say there will be large costs to small businesses, or massive job losses. The Republican solution is to appose anything President Obama proposes and do nothing, while millions of working Americans live with bankrupting health care coverage, or none at all. The time is now to change the system.

Here is the link to a 1000 page bill, HR3200 released last week; the current health care bill.

CAUTION---this is a large document!

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/...

Zoom, the director at the CBO has said you would see the very thing you are calling fear mongering...the reality of what is currently being proposed and released by committees so far; increased costs to business will result in more layoffs or less profits.

“Requiring employers to offer health insurance—or pay a fee if they do not—is likely to reduce employment”

“Proposals that imposed surcharges on employers whose workers received subsidies directly from the government could have a larger impact on employment.”

http://cboblog.cbo.gov/.

http://www.sickocure.org/docs/FAQ.pdf

We could start reform within heath care by herding up all the fat people, taking away their Mickey D privileges and forcing them onto a treadmill for an hour a day.........Seriously......

If those small companies even offer insurance at all, ask them if they are happy with what they pay now. Ask their employees if they are happy with how much they have to pay, or with the coverage they receive.

"once again the small business owners trying to make an honest dollar, are going to take it up the butt yet again."

Completely false, and just more fear mongering.

Whatever happens we must address the imbalance that is the employer mandate. We're the only country that thinks it's appropriate to fund health care that way, and doing it this way leaves millions uninsured. Uninsured patients cost the system more money because they do not receive regular primary care.

"Republicans paint Obama's proposals as a massive tax that would leave small businesses wounded..."

Yet Republicans favor a tax on the health care benefits YOU receive from your employer.

Phynque, which plan wil bankrupt the USA? Did you not read the article? There are five.

Our current health care system is already bankrupting us. Medical bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy, yet the insurance and drug companies make record profits. Millions of working poor have no insurance, which drives up the cost for those that do. There are a lot of good ideas on the table, both Democratic and Republican. Dismissing the whole process out of hand is short sighted, and ridiculous. What's your solution, do nothing?

How about if Congress finishes writing the legislation before it goes before ANY vote. What are they trying to cram down our throat?

The plan as it is written will bankrupt the USA.

"President Barack Obama's advisers are urging critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts."
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The President advisers should be as critical to legislators that vote hurriedly on "overhauls" before reading them...think cap and tax.