With more Union drama now threatening to kill the sport I love, the NFL, I have read recently about the de-certifying of the Union from the NFL. They are now trying to threaten the NFL owners with the Sherman Anti Trust Act bringing in the government to decide if the NFL enjoys a Monopoly on Football.
I have argued this many times, and I will put this out there one more time. Of course if you drill down with a subject you will say someone has a monopoly on something. Consider Burger King, and it’s Franchises which is exactly the same as the NFL, one corporation with Franchise Owners. Does Burger King have a monopoly on Whoppers? Sure I suppose, but as a consumer I have the choice to eat an unlimited menu of things from nearly limitless places.
So how can the NFL be accused of being a monopoly? What are they a monopoly of? The definition of a monopoly is : a commodity controlled by one party . So is Payton Manning the commodity being controlled. There is only one Payton Manning, so how could there ever not be a monopoly. There is only one Mark Zuckerberg who is a flat out genius, but Facebook has the monopoly on his talents.
The NFL controls no such commodity, I have the ability every day to go out to the field and play with other friends. I could organize my own league and compete at a professional level. The only thing the NFL has managed to win over is the Fans through excellent product marketing, and more importantly the product they put out. That product is entertainment. For 3 hours at a time you have the choice to go to the park, watch cartoons, listen to music, download whatever you do. All those things are competing for your entertainment. This is not the same as a single company having full control over the oil of the world. Nobody needs NFL Football we just love it, we need oil, and don’t have substitutes.
The NFL Union is not unlike every other Union, it is a parasite with no bounds. They are not fighting for benefits to those who are injured and can’t walk and do not have good health insurance, no they are fighting for millions more in their pockets. Now I do not blame them, I am a capitalist, but as soon as you go and cry mommy and get the government involved, I hate you. Tom Brady is my guy on the field, but suing a league that has made this man millions, helped create hundreds of thousands worth of jobs, you sue them and bring in government who will threaten to break up the NFL, sorry Tom. You lost me.
The devastating effects of Health Reform are just becoming more and more clear. As companies are able to review how this will impact them, a very common theme is recurring again and again. Basically an Employer who is not offering health insurance to its employee (singular) will be fined $2,000 dollars per employee (singular).
Considering how most families (plural) are on a company’s insurance plan where they work, the likely cost to a company is far greater than $2,000 dollars. Let’s say a family of four gets their full insurance policy from an employer. If the cost of the premium is $3,000 per person, or $12,000 per family, companies will gladly opt out and pay the $2,000 dollar penalty, saving them $10,000.
Even if the cost to the company to insure the person is a mere $3,000 for an entire family it would still be cheaper to drop them and they save $1,000. Even better is that when they drop them, there are no preexisting conditions, and they must be accepted no matter what to an insurance plan. One more piece of evidence this will happen is that a family of four making less than $80,000 will get the insurance subsidized by the government if their employer doesn’t offer insurance.
I will predict that a cascade of employers dropping insurance plans will come. Look for the first few to do it and be crucified in the news, but after the initial stigma wears off, all the other companies will follow suit. It will be a matter of time, before there is no such thing as Employer Based Health Insurance.
The reason I say this may be a mixed blessing is in the worst way, it will make what I have been calling for come true. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it will end the employer based insurance coverage. This part is a good thing, but the way it is set up and the incentives used, is the worst way to get there. I have my own insurance, and plan on paying for it, because I am afraid of a mass exodus to sign up for individual plans. Companies may not be allowed to deny coverage, but as far as I see, the application period to get that coverage will be indefinite.
So health care reform has basically passed through the final turn and is making its way across the finish line. I have seen many sides to the debate and there are a few things I have observed. I watch those on the left asking why anyone could possible be opposed to this legislation? Here are the top 3 reasons this reform is so loved on the left. On the surface they all seem like good ideas, with the swipe of the magic legislative wand, all these issues will be fixed. Not really, here is why.
- No preexisting conditions.
- Coverage until age 26 on parents plan
- Prevents major price increases.
The three different issues that are being addressed are all intertwined. To keep this short and simple explaining number three, preventing major price increases is really just another way of saying price controls. The bottom lines with price controls are they create shortages. If insurance companies do not have any pricing power to bring in more money, they will not be able to pay more for needed services. This means rationing of care. It will happen; anyone can reason that if there isn’t enough money to pay for the expenses, limits on spending must happen. Who decides where money is better spent, that will now be someone in Washington. Good bad or ugly, without being able to raise premiums means there is not an unlimited supply of money for services. Prices will continue to shoot through the roof because of the crown jewel of this reform bill, preexisting conditions.
Our incredible intelligent law makers figured out they simply needed to write a law saying no more preexisting conditions, and that will solve all of our insurance problems as a nation. It all sounds great, why didn’t they do this a long time ago, because it just isn’t that simple. The reason it isn’t simple is because the mish mash of insurance companies and how we get coverage. Our current system is a patchwork of coverage inter tangled through ridiculous regulations.
Consider the first crazy way we get insurance…….. from our employer. It is ridiculous since if you lose or quit your job, you lose your insurance. Why would anyone purchase based on an employer? We do because of taxes and other regulations requiring companies to provide it. Next it is even more complicated with the ridiculous idea that we can’t shop across state lines. This means if your employer is in NY, then your insurance plan has to be purchased by your company in NY. If you live in a different office of the company located in a different state, you still have NY insurance. If you lose your job, by law you must give up your coverage since you are out of state and shopping across state lines is illegal.
The problem with a preexisting condition is when someone with it, has not been paying into an insurance pool. There are many reasons why this happens. Because most insurance policies are attached to the job, as soon as someone gets very sick, they will likely have to resign losing their current insurance policy, now with the new law, they will simply buy in to a new plan. The problem is that the old insurance company got all the profit while the new company will get all the expenses.
A likely outcome of this new law is the disappearance of individual policies. Why would an insurance company cover individuals now since the only people who will be seeking insurance not from an employer will be a sick person? With no fear of losing insurance from your employer, people will become sick and quit their job to take time off to focus on their health and becoming healthier, this sounds good, but will lead them to an individual policy. Again it will be a new policy that must cover them regardless of history or cost.
Eventually this will break down the system. Any smart insurance company will exit this dangerous pool of customers. That will start forcing over people to the state rolls. This will lead to a complete breakdown of the insurance industry, and eventually everyone will find themselves on a single payer insurance pool. That is the final outcome with regulations that are too onerous. It will distort the insurance market place until it breaks.
The final proof this new plan addresses none of the problems and leads to more of the above, being 26 and still needing to be on your mothers insurance. This is the case again because we have employer driven insurance coverage. If individuals bought their own insurance policy from the start, they would never need to be on moms insurance.
The reason this even needed to be included is because of how foolish our system is. A person has their family’s policy. The new health care reform will now force coverage on moms insurance until the age of 26 instead of just 18. That sounds great, but just pushes back the same problem; they will have to change insurance companies. It doesn’t address the real issue, the fact we change insurance companies way too much for easily fixed reasons.
This is my case for why health care reform will fail. It fails to address the fundamental issues plaguing our health care system. It will continue to raise the costs and will eventually run out of money.
Matt
http:.//talkofliberty.com
Anyone reading this health care bill which was just posted online will quickly see just how scary this bill is. Everything I keep reading keeps deffering all decisions to the Secretary of Health. Every medical decision is going to be decided if it is fair. The Secretary will have the power to literally run the entire Health Insurance industry.
I think it is quite clear we are actually getting a single payer system with this reform. Everything in health insurance will be regulated and you will see co-pays, deductables, coverage all determined by our new health Dictator.
On the practical side, I have a question for the bureaucrats, it sounds great that all insurance will now have to cover everything right? What happens if somone needs a surgery and there are two ways of performing it. Option one is very expensive but uses the latest technology which makes the entire procedure pain free and easy. Option 2 is an old technique that is far cheaper and often has far more complications in outcome.
Now that insurance companies will basically be zombies run by the dictator, there is no longer an incentive to offer the better coverage than other companies. They will look at each case as an expense and opt for less costly. They will opt of the lower quality of care since they have no pricing power and no ability to offer a different insurance product to their customers, and they will be the monopoly in charge due to these regulations, so you will have nowhere to get better care.
This Health Care Reform Bill is scary, just read it and ask yourself the simple question of how will the secretary of health our new dictator, know what is best for the 300 million people. Make no mistake, this is Socialism, it is here, it is scary.
