Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Will Healthcare Be Our Demise?

<SOAPBOX>

I'm normally a pretty optimistic fellow. I have a healthy and happy family. My company is starting to really click. It's even sunny and clear outside as I write this. But I was under a dark cloud yesterday, and still am today.

The company healthcare is going up 30% from last year. And last year it went up 30%. Absurdly enough, the year before that it went up 30%. That's right, the company health care costs HAVE DOUBLED IN THREE YEARS.

Why isn't healthcare a greater priority? Why isn't big business railing against these rising costs? Unless big business is either offloading the costs or cutting special deals, I don't understand the silence. I'm shouting right now, but we are tiny next to the Microsofts, Boeings and StarBucks of our region. Maybe I'm already an anachranism believing a company should provide medical coverage for its employees. These people are working hard and doing right by us; I will do right by them.

I'm told again and again we have the greatest healthcare in the world. I have to believe we also have the costliest healthcare in the world. What happens when the greatest meets the costliest? It becomes the most USELESS because it won't cover enough people.

</SOAPBOX>

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