[speaker001:] start it
[speaker002:] sure
[speaker001:] okay uh basically I work for the government and our health insurance plan seems to be okay but it seems the benefits are are eroding and the cost of insurance goes up uh I don't know why the post people post office people pay one third out of their paycheck for the same insurance that we're getting uh right now I'm in we're physicians health plan and that costs about thirty five bucks a paycheck but yet the postal people will only pay less than ten dollars a paycheck
[speaker002:] it's called the union
[speaker001:] yes probably yes full payment one percent and I'm sure not everybody has they're probably getting their worth and MasterCard's cheaper too
[speaker002:] well  I am all for universal health insurance um being up here in New York um our local Blue Cross Blue Shield people have I'm I'm now paying every month because I'm self-employed one hundred and three dollars a month for basic health care coverage um actually I'm sorry it's more than that well it's four hundred dollars a quarter
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so it's probably a little more than that
[speaker001:] gosh yeah that's a steep one
[speaker002:] and frankly I don't I think that if we can take what's been done in Canada and given every body a choice as far as who they want for their health care frankly I think that the reason that we're in so much trouble and and and it's such an anticompetitive um uh stance right now as far as doing battle with these other companies is that we are really burdening our American corporations with health care costs which they have to build in to the price of their product whereas if you go to some one of these overseas countries Japan for example where the government pays all of that
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the you don't have to build that in to the cost of the product um they usually nail the product you know you pay as as an individual versus um having a company dragged down by these insane health care costs and I think that we should have a health care system in this country that everybody can get access to and uh have it universal
[speaker001:] I agree there because I you know Saturday afternoon you're playing baseball and you break your arm you don't know what it's going to cost you for the x-rays and everything else like that if you don't have some type of health plan that you can afford and I'm sure there's a lot of people that live paycheck to paycheck to where they cannot and afford fifty bucks every paycheck for a health insurance plan and I know I and when I was in Germany I was in the service but at the same time there was an agreement that if you went to a hospital there in Germany that they knew they could bill uncle Sam for that hospital care so they didn't give us any hassle medical care there and my brother and my dad are over there and it's a great health insurance plan for them I think that's going to cost us money as far as taxes if our government gets into it because they all haven't shown a real good record for management of any kind of program
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I you know I I wouldn't even mind so much if they had a um corporation that is financed through the government or have some sort of there can be competition as long as there is a universal plan I don't oppose I do not I'm not for eliminating all private health insurance whatsoever but um you know but if if you have the ability to pay for that you can pay based on your income as a percentage and uh more fairly and equitably distribute the cost across a wide spectrum right now you know the people working this country is half the problem right there and we're seeing that's not a lot of it is private sector too um I you know it's the government is always attacked for not being able to do anything properly this is one example I don't think the private sector's doing much better though
[speaker001:] I'm pretty ignorant on taxes but on self-employed do you get any kind of credits for health insurance
[speaker002:] I get a credit this year and last year because the government specifically said I could get a credit but the uh but it is it's going to expire which means I'm paying uh I get a sum a sum uh sum of the money back but um not all of it of course um I'm in a worst off position than someone who is employed who gets their health health care taken care of by their employer um because I have to also obtain my insurance from is a third party middle man type deal I have to go to go the small business service bureau and pay eighty dollars a year just for the right to buy health insurance  works well for them but it's horrible for me
[speaker001:] um you know the consumer is going to pay in the end no matter what happens so
[speaker002:] yeah I I I I
[speaker001:] cost hidden or not
[speaker002:] you just can't it's just it's sky rocketing I mean we're seeing increases every year ten to fifteen percent and you know it's it's gotten way out of hand and then and then you have these