Joe the Plumber Should Like Obama's Health Plan

[babylonsister]

Joe the Plumber Should Like Obama's Health Plan


Would Barack Obama's health care plan be bad news for Joe the Plumber?

Not at all. In fact, Joe the Plumber would be among the plan's primary beneficiaries.

It's no secret that small businesses have a really hard time finding affordable health insurance right now. And it's no secret why.

For one thing, it costs an insurer a lot more money to solicit, and then run, an insurance plan for multiple small businesses than it does for one large employer with the same number of employees. That drives up the cost of insurance for small businesses.

More important, insurers are a lot more picky about which small businesses they'll insure--and under what conditions.

An insurer crafting a plan for a large employer, with hundreds or thousands of employees, can be confident that there will be enough premiums from healthy people to offset the costs of those few employees with high medical costs.

In a small business, by contrast, the presence of just one worker with serious health conditions can upset the actuarial balance. So if, for example, a plumbing business had one employee with arthritis, coverage for the whole group could get very expensive, very fast.

So if you want to help Joe the Plumber, you might start by helping him buy into a large group plan. And that's exactly what Obama's plan would do.

more...

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/15/joe-the-plumber-s-should-like-obama-s-health-plan.aspx

[OKNancy]

1. he has ( had) a bunch of liens out on him

from a hospital already