What's Wrong With This Picture?
By Harris Sherline
July 23, 2009
Page 2 of 2
On average, the government pays72 percent of the premiums and the employees pay the difference. By contrast, in 2008, almost half of all private sector employees paid more than 25 percent of the premiums for health insurance that was provided through their employers.
Of the federal government's 1.8 million civilian employees (excluding the Post office), the Physicians For A National Health Program (PNHP), reports that only 100,000 of those who are eligible for health insurance are not covered because they can't afford it. Furthermore, if the same or similar plans were offered to the general public, the premiums would be higher because "federal employees are younger, healthier, and more securely employed than the average person in the general population, making the government workers less expensive to insure."
The Miami Herald noted in a recent article ("What kind of health care do lawmakers and Obama get?" by William Douglas and Margaret Talev): "Lawmakers also receive perks beyond the federal care offerings. For an annual fee of $503, they can receive health services from the Office of the Attending Physicians, a fully staffed $2.5 million medical office located on the Capitol...Its services include acute medical care, health assessments, X-ray, lab and diagnostic services...Lawmakers can also get medical treatment at military hospitals, including the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md...and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington."
Mark McClellan, a health care analyst at the Brookings Institution, observed that it would cost nearly $2 trillion to bring the health care of Americans in general "up to congressional-level health care."
If Obama's health care plan is adopted, cost estimates will outstrip projections by a wide margin and the savings that are being so highly touted to pay for it will never happen.
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Read more of Harris Sherline's commentaries on his blog at "www.opinionfest.com"
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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