This is like shouting into the wind...blogging. You voice your opinion and nobody hears.

The GM downsizing thing has me thinking and this is something that I have been mulling for some time anyway. It has to do with the fact that large corporations are setting the stage to default on pension and health packages that they are contractually obligated to fulfill. These multi-nationals are blaming unions for this current crisis and not taking any of the responsibility for being co-signatories on the contracts. But that is not what Iwant to discuss here.

What I would like to put forward is a way to moderate the effects of the coming defaults is to institute a national health plan. These defaults are coming and the people of the United States will be asked to financially pick up the pieces and administer the pension and health plans defaulted on. Welfare for the corporations will be the norm, and I am sure not one peep of complaint from the republican party will escape the beltway. It will be renamed, spun, and confusion will reign, but will still be welfare.


Would it not be in the interests of business to have a nation health care? Supported by wage earner and business as nothing is free. I cannot see how any business can be against having and sustaining healthy employees. What they all complain about is the cost. Each business is cutting cost wherever possible. One way to cut health cost is to spread out the cost of the program over the whole population. It costs GM $1500 per vehicle to cover their health and pension packages. Health must be the largest part of this fixed per unit cost. They are covering an aged (retired) population with many health issues. And with our broken health system as it is these cost will continue to escalate.

One idea:

Have national health insurance for all persons from birth to 18. This will insure that business will have a supply of healthy workers to chose from. What I am advocating here is a 'basic' health plan. It covers inoculations, regular checkups, physicals, dental, and visual. This will be good enough for 98% of the population.
Then from 18 to retirement employers and employees share the cost of health coverage. Employers will be getting healthy employees and be only obligated to cover the employee and spouse as children will already be under the national health plan. A major cost savings no matter how it is looked at.
At retirement a person is back in the national health plan, covering drugs, regular checkups, physical, dental and visual. This is once again a basic plan that uses regular checkups to detect and head off major physical problems while they can be handled without extreme measures.

The thing that could make this work is the Regular checkups. This is what would short circuit many expensive medical problems that seem to pop up in life. And the reason they pop up is that we do not regularly see a physician. We now only see doctors when we are sick. Seeing a doctor once every 6 months would improve communication between patient and doctor and give the physician a timeline and feeling for each patient. This is what you want to happen. The personal contact between patient and doctor is sometimes the most important part of healing and health.