Reply #4: If you throw in also the design of the subsidies to people

[karynnj]

to purchase health insurance, I am 100% with you. By that I mean how will they actually help people who are above the medicaid level, but still too poor to pay the full cost of insurance. It seems they need a sliding scale like SCHIP has. It makes no sense that you go from Medicaid being free to no help at all.

I know the theory is that a government plan is thought to be cheaper as they do not have to make a profit, but it likely still will be too expensive for many slightly above the Medicaid level to support. Many people on GDP to not seem to get that even if the plan is designed to be like Medicare, they still have to pay premiums.

I also wonder if creating an industry standards board that could create standard forms, paper or electronic, that minimized the paperwork would not cut costs significantly.

Your comments on WallMart are interesting - if they are allowed not to pay for all their entry level people, they may pay for only a small fraction of their workforce.