11 June 2007

WI single-payer proposal

A retired small business owner in Colgate, Wis., writes Single-payer system would bring windfall for businesses in the Small Business Times, a journal for Milwaukee and Southwestern Wisconsin small business news.

His charge is that the campaign contributions from healthcare and insurance industries — now joined by banking and credit card interests that benefit from health savings accounts — have corrupted politicians who can no longer see that the compromises they're making are killing Americans and American business.

He urges small business to support the single-payer bill before the Wisconsin Legislature:
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, and that's exactly what Sen. Mark Miller (D-Monona) and Rep. Chuck Benedict (D-Beloit) do with the Health Security Act (SB51/AB94). A small additional payroll tax for employers eliminates the 10 to 15 percent they currently spend on health care benefits, and a small additional payroll tax for employees eliminates costs of co-pays, deductibles, dental, vision, and scores of other expenses...

If you are hung up over the government's involvement, get over it. There are some things best left to the government to fund. Fire and police protection, building public roads, and funding health care are just a few. Political campaigns are another, but that's a story for a different day...

Where are the non-healthcare business leaders on this? Many with their heads in the sand. They are trying to reduce costs in this so-called "free market" system, all while turning their heads when their fellow healthcare businesses pick their pocket.
Lohman can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com.

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