Crunch these numbers: A small company pays $2 million/year to insure its employees and their families. The insurer pays out $700,000 in claims last year (one claim for treating ovarian cancer - just the chemo alone – is $90,000). What’s the profit for the insurer? $1.3 million. So what does the management of this small company worry about? Being dropped by the health insurer because of the payouts.

If companies like this don’t worry about being dropped, they worry about the increasing costs of healthcare that gets passed on to their employees.

My hope is that these small companies and corporate America wil complain loudly to their legislators that we need a national health care plan. When I lived in Australia, about 1.5% of my gross income was deducted from my salary to support the cost of national health care. Supplemental insurance could be bought.

Truth be told, I never missed the money because it was taken right off the top. I don’t know what percentage of gross wages is required to fund a national health care plan in this country right now, but I wholeheartedly support the concept. Yes it would mean making choices about how our health care dollars are spent but when the greatest amount is spent in the last 3 months of life, something is wrong with the system.

For a political perspective on how a universal healthcare policy could impact the Republican party, you’ll want to read the Huffington Post article, “Passing Universal Health Care Could Kill the GOP“.  To find out about President-elect Obama’s health plan, you might want to read this article from the Wall Street Journal.