Comments on: House public option bill could force Obama to break promise

By: Rick Bryan

Rick Bryan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:02:06 +0000

Okay I will work on the topic this weekend and submit for your review.
Thanks again; talk to you soon.
Rick Bryan
New York, NY

By: Tony Ondrusek

Tony Ondrusek — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:09:51 +0000

Rick, I haven’t been assigned homework in about 30 years, so I’ll take a pass on your request for my assignment due by Sunday.

Perhaps reviewing the definition of a blog would help to put my column more in perspective: A blog is a place for commentary, observation and discussion. I rarely watch the TV commentators (occassionally I listen to Bill O’Reilly on XM Radio), but maybe my observations match theirs because we see issues through the same lens, which is one of responsible and limited government. And apparently most of America agrees with that viewpoint, since the most recent Rasmussen poll shows that 51% of Americans do not want the health care reform that the president and Mrs. Pelosi are pushing.

Be that as it may, I will turn the tables a bit. You are obviously an expert in your field (I have read your blog in the past, and you correctly label your own blog as “insight and advice”), so perhaps you could be the one to provide some specific insight to our readers/viewers about how they can deal with the future uncertainty. We have an Agent Success section of our website where we post submitted articles from experts like yourself on various topics. In addition, there might be opportunity to use your expertise in other ways (blog contributions on our site?) and perhaps get you back into posting on a more regular basis.

Please feel free to contact me by email (here is a link to our contact page with a link to my email…I have been told to never actually use my email online, but direct people to this page: http://ifawebnews.com/contact-us/) Let’s set up a time where we can talk by phone to determine if there is any benefit to further discussion. If I don’t hear from you in the next few days, I’ll contact you through your site.

By: Rick Bryan

Rick Bryan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:08:19 +0000

Tony I respect that fact that you’re giving your opinion on various topics, such as the health care debate, separate and distinct from the news aspects of your terrific website. But the fact is that your opinions don’t bring anything to the table for the financial advisor and your readers; you simply rephrase what the talking heads say in their TV soundbites which support your personal bias for or against the issue. Which is fine; your opinion is your opinion, but it seems to me you in particular are in a unique position to raise the bar on your commentary by using your knowledge of the insurance business and combining that with your political knowledge, and help guide your readers in a way which helps them in their businesses, instead of just contributing to the endless noise. Tony, I know you can do it! I want you to write a post, please, giving the financial advisor tips on how they can use the current uncertainly over how the health care debate will come out, when they’re in front of a business owner, so that the financial advisor is perceived as a trusted resource whom the business owner can turn to for guidance after the bill is passed (if at all). I’ll expect this by Sunday.
Keep up the good work!
Rick Bryan
New York, NY

By: Tony Ondrusek

Tony Ondrusek — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:54:50 +0000

Rick, it would be irresponsible to not look now at how this legislation will affect the future. Too often, our federal government enacts legislation or regulation without considering its impact…they simply want to push an agenda or appease a certain constituency.
Are you seriously suggesting that we wait until the legislation is enacted before drawing conclusions? Would you also suggest that NASA wait until a space shuttle is actually launched into space FIRST, and then begin to look at potential problems that might occur? For that matter, according to your logic, why bother buying life insurance or homeowners insurance…instead, just wait until someone dies and see if the family can subsist with no more income, or wait until the house burns down before you start to draw up plans for a home evacuation or buying a fire extingusiher.
No sir, this is not the “cart before the horse” thinking. This is called being responsible and pragmatic.

By: Rick Bryan

Rick Bryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:48:37 +0000

Complete waste of time and energy to draw any conclusions until (or if) the legislation is enacted and we see exactly how it looks.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:36:03 +0000

It will be interesting to see what the penalties are under this plan for employers who don’t provide health insurance for employees. If penalties are low, then it would seem to be in all employers best interest to push their employees to the public plan and pay the penalties. It the penalties are high, then they will seem onerous to the employers who don’t provide health benefits already, and might put them out of business.

It is my guess is that the penalties will be kept low, and thus your scenario as posted in the article are correct.