How do we get an affordable public health insurance company and not undercut the private health insurance industry at the same time? By putting in place commonsense rules that make sure the public option is only available to those who need it.
1.Make the public option available to only those who need it: Small business owners (i.e. businesses of under 300 employees), employees of small businesses, those who are unable to work enough hours to be considered full time employees, and the remainder of the uninsured masses.
The beneficiaries of inexpensive public healthcare are obviously the working class; Americans who don't have medical insurance through their employer, and can't afford private insurance. These men and women are the part time Target employees right down to workers at small businesses.
Those who are able to buy an expensive private plan pay over $300 a month, and are often doing so at the expense of other necessities and common luxuries. With a public option, those workers could have affordable healthcare, and spend their extra money on purchasing a home or vehicle, vacationing, dining out, and all of the things that drives the markets. A public option is good for the economy.
The small business owner, with the money saved by not having to provide expensive private healthcare, may have extra money with which to hire additional employees thereby creating more jobs.
2.Provide a mandate for large employers to purchase private insurance for all employees working over 30 hours per week.
By restricting the number of Americans who are eligible for the public health insurance to only those who need it, the private sector is not threatened with extinction. With a mandate that large employers purchase private insurance, it is virtually ensured that the private healthcare industry will remain intact.
Large businesses such as Wal-Mart or Gamestop, Inc. that purposely hire employees into less-than-fulltime positions to avoid paying benefits will not be "unfairly" punished by such a mandate, as those employees will still be eligible for public health insurance.
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