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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (76570)	10/11/2004 4:01:26 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793778

Government employees are paid by taxpayers, but private employees are paid by consumers. What's the diff, really? You're paying for goods and services whether you get them from a private company or the government. We all agree that government wastes money but we all have our own pet government agencies that we like, maybe the police, maybe the land office that records your property title so you can sell it or pass it on to your children. With respect to insurance, government employees don't have the option of not having it, but private employees do. That is one of the biggest reasons that people don't have coverage. They just don't want it. They have other things they'd rather do with their money, and they figure they don't get sick enough to make it worth their while.

To: KLP who wrote (76570)	10/11/2004 5:35:40 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793778

The Government would allow the present Insurance companies that already have government contracts to open them to ALL taxpayers..... Why would the insurance companies do that? What's in it for them? They get top dollar now from independent purchasers of health insurance. They don't get top dollar for their federal customers. Why would they voluntarily sell at the government negotiated price to people who are paying top dollar? No incentive unless the government gives them tax breaks to make up the difference, in which case the taxpayers subsidize health insurance for taxpayers, which makes no sense. You come from a background where the Government pays much of the freight. I don't... We've had this exchange before. It's not the government paying the freight in its role as the government but in its role as employer. Plenty of big non-government employers pay the freight, too. It's part of the employment package. Some non-government employees pay for the entire package, some pay for none. It's a function of how they want to design their compensation packages. Taxpayers and employees are two different conceptual entities. That federal employees are paid by the taxpayers (as well as taxpayers themselves) is a red herring.