By CINDY PURVIS
GoErie.com
August 10, 2007
In 2004, General Motors announced that liabilities for employee health care topped $60 billion. In November 2005, GM laid off 30,000 employees. In January 2006, Ford cut 25,000 jobs. In February, Chrysler announced that it faces $21.1 billion in future retiree health-care liabilities. The majority of the obligation is not funded.
The fortunate employees of companies that have made health care part of a benefits package are seeing an ever-decreasing benefit. Small businesses find it impossible to afford health-care benefits for their employees, and many can’t afford to purchase health-care insurance for themselves.
Our entire country is walking around in fear of getting sick; in fear of the annual increase in health insurance; in fear of changing jobs; in fear of being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
In Pennsylvania, some very brave people have come out to confront our collective fear.
They have written a bill and found a group of braver Pennsylvania senators and representatives who have introduced the Family & Business Health Security Act.
This is SB300 in the Senate and HB1660 in the House.
It provides for total coverage for every Pennsylvanian and includes medical, dental, vision, mental health, prescription drugs and long-term care. There are never any co-pays, never any applications and never any denials.
It is funded by the cost-saving, single-payer system. No, this is not socialized medicine, though socialized medicine works well for Veterans Administration medical centers, which are owned by the federal government, and staffed by government employees.
The Family & Business Health Care Security Act is instead funded by a change in how we all pay for health care. Instead of purchasing health insurance, health care would be financed mainly through a new 10 percent employer payroll tax.
Most businesses would save money. Several examples that are near and dear to us taxpayers are our local taxing bodies.
With the cost of health-care coverage for the employees being reduced to just 10 percent of payroll, the city of Erie would save more than $5 million per year, the Erie County almost $5 million per year and the the Erie School District $9 million per year. It would save smaller school districts, such as Harbor Creek, almost $900,000, and Corry more than $1.3 million per year.
Instead of paying into a health-insurance plan or purchasing their own, Pennsylvanians would pay a 3 percent of earnings payroll tax. For a family making $50,000 per year, the cost would be $1,500. But remember: There is never a co-pay or a fee for prescriptions or out-of-pocket expenses.
These funds would go into a trust called the Pennsylvania Health Care Trust Fund.
All money collected and received by the plan are by law to be used exclusively to finance the plan. In other words, no other state agency or legislative body could dip into this fund for use in other areas. Pennsylvanians are assured that the funds are put into “a lock box” to be used only for health care.
This plan gives us the freedom to choose our own doctors, dentists, hospitals and any other decision affecting our health.
This plan eliminates the greed-ridden insurance system that chooses for us what care we are allowed to receive.
This system is of the people, by the people, for the people. We will no longer need to live in fear of getting sick or changing jobs or retiring.
This plan also eliminates the need for companies to pay retiree health-care benefits. Whatever Medicare does not cover would be automatically covered under this plan.
For more information, to read the entire bill or to get a petition to distribute to garner support from our area Pennsylvania legislators: www.healthcare4allpa.org.
CINDY PURVIS is an Erie resident. She is a member of Lake Erie Alliance for Democracy and co-chairwoman of HealthCare4All Pa, an organization focused on providing health care for every American.