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Looks like Wal-Mart is doing its part to lower the cost of healthcare.



This is from "The Cost of Freedom" a national finance & investment show last Saturday.



If you're wondering, I agree with Jim Rogers. Also, is there any doubt that Tracy Byrnes is not exactly in touch with middle-class America?



VIDEO LINK

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Neil Cavuto: Does Wal-Mart have the answer to America's healthcare crisis? Memo to health insurers: the competition just got a lot tougher! Wal-Mart's now selling health insurance to small businesses through its Sam's Club stores. Can Wal-Mart do for healthcare what it did for TV toasters and groceries. Bring costs way down?



Herman Cain: Yes. It's not the fact that Wal-Mart is selling insurance that's going to help drive down the cost of healthcare, it's the type of health insurance its selling – a defined contribution program with plans like health savings accounts where employees choose their own health plans using the money their employer has already allocated for them. It's more portable and flexible, and it encourages people to take responsibility for their healthcare choices. This type of insurance will allow market forces to bring down the cost of healthcare. Until healthcare is consumer driven the costs are not going to come down. The biggest reason these types of plans have not taken off yet is because people don't understand them, and with Wal-Mart doing what it's doing more people will understand them.



Tracy Byrnes: People need to take more responsibility for their own healthcare choices. When we want cosmetic surgery, we shop around because we have to pay out of our own pockets, but most people don't do that when they have the sniffles and are using insurance that is paid for by someone else. And seventy percent of the claims out there are chronic diseases due to reckless lifestyles. People find the money to buy cigarettes and alcohol. What they need is to take better care of themselves.



Gregg Hymowitz: I think it's ironic to hear about Wal-Mart selling health insurance when so many of their employees don't get health insurance. The fact that they leverage off the government programs to get health insurance for many of their low-paid employees is ironic.



Jim Rogers: Somebody has got to do something to get people to take more responsibility for their own healthcare or this country is going to go broke. The problem is this country is spending huge amounts of money on healthcare and we are not getting good results. We spend 15 percent of our gross national product on healthcare in this country, and our life expectancy is something like 22nd in the world. Many countries spend much less and get much better results, and you know why? Because people have to take responsibility for their actions and their money and the idea of health savings accounts is spectacular.



Chris Lahiji: I think Gregg is right. The state of California paid tens of millions of dollars for the employees that weren't insured by Wal-Mart. Also, there are only five health insurers in the entire country now because of all the mergers, and premiums have risen. There's no way that people who are making 20-30 thousand dollars a year at Wal-Mart or anyplace else are going to be able to afford for health insurance.



Michael Parness: I fall way to the left here because I think we are spending half a trillion dollars on a war we shouldn't be in and yet we have people without health insurance. I feel the government should subsidize those people who can't afford health insurance and I don't mind giving a little more money for that.

These are the people & who they are. The video has much more than the text has.



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Neil Cavuto was joined by Jim Rogers, "Hot Commodities" author; Gregg Hymowitz, founder of Entrust Capital; Tracy Byrnes, New York Post business writer; Chris Lahiji, president of DailyTrends.com; Michael Parness, CEO of Trendfund.com; Herman Cain, radio talk show host.

Accountable wrote: Looks like Wal-Mart is doing its part to lower the cost of healthcare.



This is from "The Cost of Freedom" a national finance & investment show last Saturday.



If you're wondering, I agree with Jim Rogers. Also, is there any doubt that Tracy Byrnes is not exactly in touch with middle-class America?



VIDEO LINK

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Neil Cavuto: Does Wal-Mart have the answer to America's healthcare crisis? Memo to health insurers: the competition just got a lot tougher! Wal-Mart's now selling health insurance to small businesses through its Sam's Club stores. Can Wal-Mart do for healthcare what it did for TV toasters and groceries. Bring costs way down?



Herman Cain: Yes. It's not the fact that Wal-Mart is selling insurance that's going to help drive down the cost of healthcare, it's the type of health insurance its selling – a defined contribution program with plans like health savings accounts where employees choose their own health plans using the money their employer has already allocated for them. It's more portable and flexible, and it encourages people to take responsibility for their healthcare choices. This type of insurance will allow market forces to bring down the cost of healthcare. Until healthcare is consumer driven the costs are not going to come down. The biggest reason these types of plans have not taken off yet is because people don't understand them, and with Wal-Mart doing what it's doing more people will understand them.



Tracy Byrnes: People need to take more responsibility for their own healthcare choices. When we want cosmetic surgery, we shop around because we have to pay out of our own pockets, but most people don't do that when they have the sniffles and are using insurance that is paid for by someone else. And seventy percent of the claims out there are chronic diseases due to reckless lifestyles. People find the money to buy cigarettes and alcohol. What they need is to take better care of themselves.



Gregg Hymowitz: I think it's ironic to hear about Wal-Mart selling health insurance when so many of their employees don't get health insurance. The fact that they leverage off the government programs to get health insurance for many of their low-paid employees is ironic.



Jim Rogers: Somebody has got to do something to get people to take more responsibility for their own healthcare or this country is going to go broke. The problem is this country is spending huge amounts of money on healthcare and we are not getting good results. We spend 15 percent of our gross national product on healthcare in this country, and our life expectancy is something like 22nd in the world. Many countries spend much less and get much better results, and you know why? Because people have to take responsibility for their actions and their money and the idea of health savings accounts is spectacular.



Chris Lahiji: I think Gregg is right. The state of California paid tens of millions of dollars for the employees that weren't insured by Wal-Mart. Also, there are only five health insurers in the entire country now because of all the mergers, and premiums have risen. There's no way that people who are making 20-30 thousand dollars a year at Wal-Mart or anyplace else are going to be able to afford for health insurance.



Michael Parness: I fall way to the left here because I think we are spending half a trillion dollars on a war we shouldn't be in and yet we have people without health insurance. I feel the government should subsidize those people who can't afford health insurance and I don't mind giving a little more money for that.


I feel sorry for kids whose parents cannot afford health insurance. I was very lucky I guess but then you make your own luck to some extent. My did worked for a railroad for many year and had health insurance. Well not true insurance. We had doctors who belonged to our association and we had our own hospitals. When I was grown I too worked for a railroad all my working life. We had great health care and we had insurance for our family that was very good. Travelers Insurance for many years then it changed. It had some drawbacks. If you needed a hospital then you had to travel to the hospital in some cases from Oklahoma City to Topeka Kansas or Temple Texas or some place. :ater we had a choice if we wanted to pay the first $2000. Later on we sold it and then did actually have insurance. but it was cheap and it was good. The company paid most of it.

All other major industrial countries have health care for their citizens. They have faults but they still work.

But I realize most companys are either cutting off health care or drastically changing it. And many are moving their factories to other countries for cheap labor. so more and more kids here do not have health care. And Medicaid is all they have. Now Bush has given away all the surplus Clinton saved up and has promised his rich friend to give them a permanent tax cut we are getting to be a poor nation and his war has backfired and is dropping us deep in debt. He wants to make up all that by depriving poor kids.

Charity is not the government's job.