A Faerie Tale .........National Health?

An old friend e-mailed me yesterday and shared some thoughts that jest made my hair stand on end and ruined my evening. I did a little research - and that plumb ruined my nights sleep. Let me share this scenario with you good folks....

Supposing a certain pear shaped Democrat of the female persuasion were to be elected next year. And supposin' this here lady owed a lot of favors to several industrial giants for their support (financial and otherwise) during the campaign. Now then, suppose these high rolling CEO's had been sitting with their bean counters the last couple of years and discovered just how much employee health care was costin' them.

Now let's suppose these same CEO's had their legal staffs (that's a euphemism for pin striped, pointy toed lawyers) do some research as to how the Pension Benefit Guarantee Program (PBGP) got started up as a quasi-gov'mint corporation back in 1974. You remember those days, airlines were going belly-up, companies were folding and folks was gettin' left without the pensions they had been promised by corporations claiming bankruptcy. When I say quasi-gov'mint, I mean of course that it is run by appointed (not elected) folks who report to other appointed (not elected) folks like the Secretary's of Labor, Commerce & Treasury. Quick now - let's see you name one of them. Every employer pays pennies per employee per day and the Gov'mint agrees to pay pension benefits should the company either go belly-up or be able to convince these folks that they will go under if they are held to their pension promises! Right now this agency is making pension payments to 1.2 million citizens employed by private industries. And they are currently guaranteeing the pensions of 44 million others! Talk about a Ponzi scheme.

Move to November 2008, and suppose that these bright businessmen go to Madam President who has a proven predisposition for a national health program in the past and suggest a "Health Benefit Guarantee Program", a quasi-gov'mint corporation which will run a national program responsible for the health care for all their employees, as well as everybody else. They'd be willing to chip in pennies on the dollar for these costs, but also agree to a ten percent corporate income tax increase to help fund this new program. Remember who pays corporate income tax in this country -- yeah - you'n me at the cash register! It sure doesn't come out of their salaries.

It ain't like it'd be the first time, remember all the screams when the Medicare system was initiated and all these same companies changed the game rules for all their retired employees eligible for Medicare coverage ----- they would only pay the co-pays and fill in the gaps for those eligible for Medicare. In one fell swoop dumping millions of folks plumb in the middle of the medicare pool!

Like FDR and his New Deal, LBJ and his Great Society, she could become HRC and the Health Benefit Plan! She had heard the people and she acted! How great is that!


Now folks, before you get excited, this is all just a faerie tale at the moment, pure conjecture! But this might be a good time to do your homework and hide your billfolds......

Might even chat with some of your friends ......