If you could speak one-on-one with your senator for 30 minutes

[landpoke]

That's what I'm talking about. You've mentioned this plan before, and there are things I like and things I don't, but I certainly like that it is different. Why, may I ask, do you propose a tax on gasoline?



How much would this help? For a lil' ol' state like Wyoming, I'm sure it would help a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, don't we still need to find a way to reduce health care costs? For example, should we mandate all surgeons' pay to be cut 50%, and then confiscate their retirement? I'm not entirely opposed to that.

I wouldn't get pissy if y'all would just have responded in the first place. I mean, I'm sure YOhio responded with something that he thought was clever, but he's such an idiot that I have him on ignore.

More competition, economies of scale, etc. Of course I'm focusing on Wyoming, but I would think it would translate to savings for the consumer on a national scale. I suppose I'd also be for tort reform. Yes, I know we can all point to that one time when the incompetent doctor butchered someone, but we've got to be a little more pragmatic about this. Those cases are not the rule.

And, to your example, as long as the rich surgeon isn't forced to live with his offspring I'd be all for that.

[cowboy]

My questions:

1) When will insurance companies be able to pool across state lines.
2) Why is there not a dollar-based coverage option for health insurance
3) Why doesn't Medicare and Medicaid make hospitals compete against each other to set rates
4) Why is it not the law that rates and prices be posted so that patients know how much each component of their care is costing.

[Indy Coug]

I would bring up this

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Cont...d-Workers.aspx

[TripletDaddy]

what actual ability does a senator possess to do anything about healthcare? It seems like they have very little power to do much of anything.

[Indy Coug]

what actual ability does a senator possess to do anything about healthcare? It seems like they have very little power to do much of anything.

Unless they're a blue dog Nebraskan.

[wuapinmon]

I would bring up how pissed I was when I was forced to get BYU's medical insurance. It was a royal pain in the ass to have to pay that as a starving student and then the one time I did use it, the doctor's office was overcrowded and I got bullshit treatment that only taught me never to go back. I think that's but a microcosm of what would occur on a national level.

I always received high-quality care from the BYU health center. I'm sorry you didn't have a similar experience. The health plan there is better than what I have now with my employer.

Below is my letter to my state senator:

Would you graduate the $2 a gallon tax over time, or do it all at once? That would have a DRASTIC effect on commerce. As in it would drive many companies out of business overnight.

[Mormon Red Death]

Would you graduate the $2 a gallon tax over time, or do it all at once? That would have a DRASTIC effect on commerce. As in it would drive many companies out of business overnight.

I disagree that this would drive companies out of business. Lets say you are a company that relies on lots of driving... say UPS and lets say your trucks get 15 miles to gallon and they travel 25,000 miles a year. That means the average gas expenditure would rise by 3k per vehicle for the company. However that would be made up easily in health care benefits. In fact most of companies would save in health care costs double what increase gas costs would be.

[wuapinmon]

I disagree that this would drive companies out of business. Lets say you are a company that relies on lots of driving... say UPS and lets say your trucks get 15 miles to gallon and they travel 25,000 miles a year. That means the average gas expenditure would rise by 3k per vehicle for the company. However that would be made up easily in health care benefits. In fact most of companies would save in health care costs double what increase gas costs would be.

I'm talking about the little guys. Like the well-digging company that can't afford to operate it's truck anymore because the expense doubled. Or the bulldozer operator who does contract jobs. The big companies can absorb the hit. I'm talking about the little guys.

Also, how about airline fuel? How would you tax it? Isn't their efficiency already maxed out?

[Mormon Red Death]

I'm talking about the little guys. Like the well-digging company that can't afford to operate it's truck anymore because the expense doubled. Or the bulldozer operator who does contract jobs. The big companies can absorb the hit. I'm talking about the little guys.

Those guys reduction in healthcare benefits would make up for the increase in gas expenditure.

[Mormon Red Death]

I'm talking about the little guys. Like the well-digging company that can't afford to operate it's truck anymore because the expense doubled. Or the bulldozer operator who does contract jobs. The big companies can absorb the hit. I'm talking about the little guys.

Also, how about airline fuel? How would you tax it? Isn't their efficiency already maxed out?

this tax would be on automobile fuel only.

[wuapinmon]

Those guys reduction in healthcare benefits would make up for the increase in gas expenditure.

I disagree. So many of these guys already don't have health insurance. It's funny money, and an immediate $2 a gallon tax would punish many of the very people you're trying to help. A graduated tax over 10 years would be fine. But $2 all at once would have a catastrophic withering effect on small businesses that are energy intensive.

[Mormon Red Death]

I disagree. So many of these guys already don't have health insurance. It's funny money, and an immediate $2 a gallon tax would punish many of the very people you're trying to help. A graduated tax over 10 years would be fine. But $2 all at once would have a catastrophic withering effect on small businesses that are energy intensive.

Again an increase of 3k is not going to break a small business. First of all of that increase wouldnt be born by them as 30% of it would be less taxes they would have paid. An indepenant trucker is just going to pass some of that increase on to the people he is shipping for. Commodities are going to be a little bit more expensive for everyone as shipping costs would increase. Would the pizza driver take a hit? Sure... and companies will adjust by paying them more and charging a $2 to deliver pizza. The other way to do it is have a sales tax for 20% like Canada does.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Missed this thread yesterday.

The one thing I would ask is:

When is someone going to address over-utilization of services and inefficient/ineffective medical care instead of focusing on access and medical insurance reform?

[wuapinmon]

Again an increase of 3k is not going to break a small business. First of all of that increase wouldnt be born by them as 30% of it would be less taxes they would have paid. An indepenant trucker is just going to pass some of that increase on to the people he is shipping for. Commodities are going to be a little bit more expensive for everyone as shipping costs would increase. Would the pizza driver take a hit? Sure... and companies will adjust by paying them more and charging a $2 to deliver pizza. The other way to do it is have a sales tax for 20% like Canada does.

I think you have an extremely optimistic and oversimplified understanding of the cost structures of energy-intensive enterprises. You cannot simply pass along all commodity increases to your customers without seeing a corresponding decrease in business. If you're an independent or small operator, then these taxes you propose would be crippling.

Imagine telling cowboy that you'll be slapping a $2 per bushel of grain feed tax on his operation because red meat consumption can be detrimental to people's health. You can claim that he'll just pass the cost along to his customers. But, people will eat less beef, and the smaller operators without sufficient economies of scale in their processing will go out of business, quickly. I mean, if it takes around 50 bushels of corn to get an animal to a 1250 lbs. slaughter weight, an extra hundred dollars isn't that much. Right, cowboy?

But wait, you're talking about gasoline. Well, how much gas does it take to produce that bushel (56 lbs) or corn? From what I can tell, it takes .7 kcal of gas energy to produce 1 kcal of food energy. 56 lbs x 2400 kcal per pound = 134000 kcal per bushel. Let's say that there's about 29,000 kcal in one gallon of gasoline. So, if we multiply 134000 x .7 = 93800 divided by 29000 kcal in gasoline that means we need about 3.23 gallons of gas per bushel.

So, that means that you're charging an extra $6 per bushel of corn, times 50 bushels, that means an extra $300 off the price of a cow at market.

If a slaughter-weight cow yields about 600 pounds of usable meat, then we're looking at about 50¢ per pound increase, just from the cost of the corn. This doesn't include the transportation costs of getting it to market, packaging, etc.

This is just beef. I think inflation would go crazy with this tax increase.

[Mormon Red Death]

I think you have an extremely optimistic and oversimplified understanding of the cost structures of energy-intensive enterprises. You cannot simply pass along all commodity increases to your customers without seeing a corresponding decrease in business. If you're an independent or small operator, then these taxes you propose would be crippling.

Imagine telling cowboy that you'll be slapping a $2 per bushel of grain feed tax on his operation because red meat consumption can be detrimental to people's health. You can claim that he'll just pass the cost along to his customers. But, people will eat less beef, and the smaller operators without sufficient economies of scale in their processing will go out of business, quickly. I mean, if it takes around 50 bushels of corn to get an animal to a 1250 lbs. slaughter weight, an extra hundred dollars isn't that much. Right, cowboy?

But wait, you're talking about gasoline. Well, how much gas does it take to produce that bushel (56 lbs) or corn? From what I can tell, it takes .7 kcal of gas energy to produce 1 kcal of food energy. 56 lbs x 2400 kcal per pound = 134000 kcal per bushel. Let's say that there's about 29,000 kcal in one gallon of gasoline. So, if we multiply 134000 x .7 = 93800 divided by 29000 kcal in gasoline that means we need about 3.23 gallons of gas per bushel.

So, that means that you're charging an extra $6 per bushel of corn, times 50 bushels, that means an extra $300 off the price of a cow at market.

If a slaughter-weight cow yields about 600 pounds of usable meat, then we're looking at about 50¢ per pound increase, just from the cost of the corn. This doesn't include the transportation costs of getting it to market, packaging, etc.

This is just beef. I think inflation would go crazy with this tax increase.

A gasoline tax is different because it covers all business that use automobile services. It doesnt single out any company or industry. The big thing you are missing is the expense of health benefits FAR outweighs the gasoline expenditures. Yes to run the gas on Cowboy's tractor is going to be 180% of what he paid last year. 4000 to 7000 but his benefit expense goes from 12,000 to 6,000.