Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Fri, Mar 13 1992 Date: Fri, 13 Mar 92 05:47:47 EST Message-ID: 03-13 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update March 13-15, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Friday morning in USA TODAY: Health; Election; Neuharth. TODAY'S DEBATE - HEALTH CARE: USA TODAY'S OPINION: One tiny parcel of common ground has emerged in the midst of the health-care battlefield. The victors: 2 million employees of small businesses who now face sickness without insurance. The peaceful patch is "small-business insurance reform," an unsexy name for an alluring idea. Powerful people agree. The Senate is debating one version this week. The president and the largest insurance companies have proposals that play on the same basic elements: Eliminating "cherry-picking" - the growing practice of insuring only the youngest and healthiest. Small-business insurers would be required to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions at reasonable rates; Freeing small-business workers from the fear that changing a job means losing their health insurance. ... and giving states more freedom to spread risks and keep costs down by, for example, letting small businesses form bigger groups. ... The alternative? Do nothing. Election-year dissension in Congress is thwarting major reform for now. OTHER VIEW: ROBERT M. BRANDON, vice president of Citizen Action: Although Americans are crying out for fundamental change in the nation's health-care system, a few politicians are offering timid proposals known as small-group insurance reform. This initiative is nothing less than an effort by the health-insurance industry to derail the public's demand for national health insurance. President Bush, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and others would set some limits on premium variations and increases within the small-group market and restrict pre-existing-condition exclusions while exempting these policies from state-mandated services. These "reforms" will increase premiums for some by 30% or more. As a result, many small businesses could drop coverage altogether. ... Small-group reform is a step backward, not forward. Such "reform" is worse than prescribing Rolaids for stomach cancer. It's neither relief nor a cure. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON ELECTIONS BEING HELD ON A HOLIDAY: FLORISSANT, Mo., Louise Whittenburg, 45, teacher: I think that would be a good idea. In Europe, they have had some success with doing that. It would allow us to relate the action of election with a specific, positive reinforcement - that we consider elections so important that we set aside one day for that action. CHINO, Calif., Jeffrey R. Unger, 39, physician: I'd suggest that we concentrate more on absentee-ballot voting. If people were aware that they could vote absentee rather than going to the polls, that would help the turnout substantially. TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Albert Wilson, 52, principal: Many people have become disenchanted with the rhetoric, with politicians making promises that are not kept. If it's viewed as important, they would find the time to vote. If people can see some campaign promises become a reality, that might help. TAMPA, Fla., Andrea N. Elger, 26, sales representative: I don't think it needs to be made a full-day holiday - maybe an extra hour at lunch. It shouldn't be a national holiday because they cost the taxpayers money. If voting were more readily accessible to the general public, more people would take advantage of their right. ALEXANDRIA, Va., Converse M. West, 60, insurance manager: I definitely feel it would help. It should be a midweek holiday to discourage people from using it for recreational purposes, like extending the weekend. I feel that more people would participate in election activities, like poll-watching, if it were a holiday. TOPIC - NEUHARTH: AL NEUHARTH, founder, USA TODAY: A new boss-bashing book is getting big play because it plays on the love:hate feelings all of us have from time to time for the head honcho. In Crazy Bosses, author Stanley Bing says: A majority of bosses ages 28 to 82 are crazy. Bosses making more than $134,000 a year are 98% nuts. Bing puts crazies into these five categories: Bullies. Paranoids. Narcissists or preening peacocks. Bureaucrazies or workaholics. Disaster hunters or drunks. I was bossed around in business for most of my first 48 years. ... All really successful bosses have a little bit of craziness in them. ... Unsuccessful, or less successful, bosses nearly all are stamped out of the same cookie-cutter. They go only for the status quo. ... Author Bing believes people don't like to work for bosses who are a little crazy, or demanding. He's wrong. Most people want the boss to bring out the best in them. Whether he or she does it with a pat on the back or a kick in the rear. Issues & Debate Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM