I Am a Business Owner, and I Fully Support a Public Health Option

With GM spending more on health care than steel and Starbucks spending more on health care than beans, you'd think that every business in the country would see how they could be more competitive on a global basis if they did not have to be in the health insurance business.

I am a small business owner. As a scrappy start up in film and radio, I have not yet been able to afford to offer health care benefits through our company. And this has left my employees and myself with sleepless nights, scrambling to find affordable individual coverage. And when I say scramble, I mean scramble, as "pre-existing conditions" have determined the rates and sometimes fates of finding coverage at all.

But it also makes me think about every individual who has had to take or stay in a dead-end job solely because they needed group health insurance. Does such a system promote greatness in companies and maximize the true talents and passions of our most valuable resource...our citizens?

I am not an expert on health care reform. But I am an individual who is sick and tired of having one industry have so much control over my personal and business life. There is great irony in that those against a public option argue that they don't want government to have more control than it currently does. Well I would much rather have a government option than continue in the hands of an industry driven solely by profits. One that has repeatedly screwed the public and laughed all the way to the bank.

As discussed in my recent interview with Howard Dean, private industry (and its well paid supporters) has had more than enough time to fix the system and is now scrambling to protect its profits. Watch and listen carefully as they continue to spend boatloads of money to convince you that a public option is not necessary and something to fear. Count the number of times you hear phrases like "rationed care", "socialized medicine" and issue dodging like blaming current costs on malpractice suits (less than 2 percent of the total health care costs).

If you doubt this, check out and share Bill Moyers' shocking interview with former Cigna CEO Wendell Potter. You will see the very calculated PR campaign that industry is using to scare the daylights out you and Congress. Given recent events, it appears to be working.

(Shortly after watching the Moyers/Potter interview, I saw former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Congressman Paul Ryan mouthing many of the "catch" phrases identified by Wendell Potter. And it made my face burn with shame that they were from my lovely state of Wisconsin.)

The opposition continues to shout their well-rehearsed lines and fails to acknowledge the most beautiful part of this entire proposal. That the public option is just that...an option. If you happen to be one of the fortunate ones who likes your current coverage, you get to keep it. This isn't scary -- it's liberating.

I am a business owner and I support a public health option. I wish the administration did too.

Footnote: Given my former career pushing pills, I can definitely relate to Wendell Potter's angst. For a disturbing behind-the-scenes look at Big Pharma (and to get a sense of why they like things just as they are) I've put my film "Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety" online for FREE. Please use it to educate in any way possible.

Follow Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KathleenShow

Comments

[TokyoStormWarning]

12:22 PM on 08/19/2009

One reason it's hard to answer critics of health care reform is that they are wrong in so many different ways and on so many different levels. This is a good place to start. Exhorbitant health insurance costs are killing the international competitiveness of American corporations. A public option is not only a moral imperative, it's the pro-business option.

Have a look at this site for more about Wendell Potter:

http://www.squidoo.com/wendell_potter

[Guga]

08:28 AM on 08/19/2009

I dont know why we didnt start with the French optioned way and it up with a measly PUBLIC OPTION as the last OPTION.....Maybe we could have used that half of the bank stimuls.....Thes guys got that money and all you here is them Critcizing the President....Pure INGRATES.......

[ncmom54]

11:36 PM on 08/18/2009

Wonderful article Kathleen! I prefer Single Payer, it's simple, fair and as a Business Owner, a payroll tax (like FUTA & SUTA) toward health care for everyone would be great.
A public option is... well, a consolation but has the potential to become complicated. These economic times are hard enough to ride out here on Main Street... Health Care for all would make a big difference for consumers, families, businesses and the economy.

[bunnyv]

11:27 PM on 08/18/2009

"But it also makes me think about every individual who has had to take or stay in a dead-end job solely because they needed group health insurance. Does such a system promote greatness in companies and maximize the true talents and passions of our most valuable resource...our citizens?"

This is my main issue with how the current system works. If I want excellent insurance (meaning ins that actually covers me when needed) I have to work for a corporation which I HATE. I want the freedom to be able to work wherever I want doing whatever I want no matter if the company is big or small and not have to worry if I will be covered. Excellent article!

It's sickening how Dems are letting Repubs dominate the discussion on everything. What was the point of voting in all these Dems if they don't have the spine to stand up when it counts?

[KathleenSlatteryMoschkau]

11:20 AM on 08/19/2009

Thank you for highlighting this point in the piece--it's a hot button for me and one of the most exasperating elements of the current system.

It kills me when I hear the opposition say that reform is an attack on our liberties--they've done a masterful job of spinning/twisting this issue.

As you point out, with true reform comes FREEDOM for business and individuals. We need to do everything we can this week to get people to stop and think about the specific impact this could have on their day to day lives. (Their bodies, their wallets, their career choices, their companies.)

And then we need to get them to pick up the phone or hit the send button. I don't think we've done enough of that.

[johnashman]

05:20 PM on 08/24/2009

It is an attack on our liberties. And money. It's inefficient and wasteful and not even really 'reform'. THIS is reform and it's entirely pro-business, pro-consumer. Sucks to be an insurance company, lawyer or bureaucrat though.

http://64.203.97.61/SolutionsLab/Solution.aspx?Guid=2d50363e-00be-44e8-9251-9a6589ba820d

Tell me why ObamaCare, with or without public option is better than this. My plan will cut healthcare costs to as much as 25% of current spending with better outcomes. Obama's can't do that. Public option certainly can't.

[Lexie]

11:22 PM on 08/18/2009

I think you are a very smart business owner. If corporations thought about it rationally, they would realize that a single-payer system would be BETTER for the vase majority of them (except for Big Pharma and the Insurance industry, I suppose).

[KathleenSlatteryMoschkau]

10:08 AM on 08/19/2009

It’s hard for me to fathom how the opposition considers themselves ‘pro-business’. Every business owner I’ve spoken to is being crushed by the current system.

But you’d never guess that from the recent mainstream media who is painting the picture that everyone and their brother is against real reform. (‘News’ that is generated from strategically timed/calculated press releases bought and paid for by those with the most to lose.)

We can’t let Insurance, Pharma and their deep pockets man this ship. We have to bang the phones, doors, email, and fax machines to turn this around this week.

[jsehgal]

11:01 PM on 08/18/2009

I live in Canada where, according to American Republicans, there are horrible lines, medical rationing, and recent accusation of letting grandma die. I can assure you that none of this is true. On the contary, our medical system is a corner stone of our economy. Several large companies have established operations here because they do not have to worry about exhorbitant medical costs.

[espressobeans]

07:55 PM on 08/18/2009

100% agreed. More people like you need to speak out. Health care takes too big a chunk out of the pie. It costs too much and delivers too little. The whole economy needs an overhaul and this is the best place to start. An employer who wants to do right by its employees should not have to compete with the lesser minded who stiff their employees. Paying into the health care coverage pool should be part of the cost of doing business. That levels the playing field. Tax imports for the privilege of accessing our markets to do away with the incentive to move offshore to avoid health care insurance costs. Single payer makes the most sense. Public option is already a compromise. Simply handing the existing insurance industry a sweet heart deal in the form of passing a law that says those not already doing business with them now have to fixes nothing. It exacerbates.

[gizmo64]

06:48 PM on 08/18/2009

Kathleen a great article and I am with you I am on medicare but I have many young friends and family that either can't afford to go to a doctor because of out of pocket payments.high deductibles that we really need a public option. I really think the media picking up and spreading the idea that the public option was dead helped to create a wave of grassroots supporters who will follow thru and make darn sure this bill gets passed with a public option or congress will have he-- to pay at the midterms

[KathleenSlatteryMoschkau]

10:25 AM on 08/19/2009

What can we do to get those 'friends and family' (yours, mine, and everyone's) active this week and contacting their Congressmen?

Unfortunately I'm getting the feeling that after the long presidential campaign, people are burned out on politics and taking action (specifically Obama supporters). Thus even around this critical issue, I'm sensing complacency--the opposition has also sensed this and is capitalizing.

I think it is going to take a personal appeal to family and friends from each of us (right now!) "to make darn sure this bill gets passed with a public option or congress will have he-- to pay at the midterms".