Reader comments
Business owners talk over health-care reform

Sorry. No way in the hot place that wages are going up 13% annually in Utah. I think there's an editing error in graph 5, and the word "annually" should NOT be there.

I can believe wages have gone up a total of 13% over a period of years. For example, 3% growth compounded over 4 years is about 13%. And 3% wage annual wage growth is probably about right for Utah.

Think about it. If wages were going up 13% annually, what would our inflation rate be? It would have to be in double digits, or close to that rate. Unless of course worker productivity gains were keeping up with 13% annual wage growth. But that kind of annual worker productivity improvement is impossible in a developed economy.

The reporter's point - that small biz wage and revenue growth are not even close to keeping up with skyrocketing health insurance premiums - is well taken. This is a critical issue for small biz owners and employees.

Why should we, as a society, mandate health insurance? If the "young immortals" don't want insurance, then let them. Should legislation be passed to force the issue as in Mass? If so, how will it be enforced? Seems mandatory car insurance hasn't worked so well.

Less government, not more!

Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator, once stated, "In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem--government IS the problem." Granted, this particular comment was not directed at our nation's present health care "crisis"--but, in my view, it may as well have been. Our government already regulates health care more than just about any other U.S. industry. In fact, its bungling intervention in markets has precipitated, directly or indirectly, all of our current complaints about our health care system--and I have no doubt that further government intervention, no matter how well-intentioned it may appear to be, will surely only exacerbate these problems rather than cure them. And, so, I hope that my fellow Utahns will join me, both in rejecting socialized medicine (whether communist-style like HillaryCare 1.0 or fascist-style like MittCare) and in advocating greater liberty instead. No amount of centralized bureaucratic meddling will ever prove superior to a truly-free market.

This is a bad plan this only helping the insurance
companies. I challenge you to go to healthcare-now.
org HR676 this is true Healthcare Reform.