Via the Indy Star:

The [Indiana] lottery proceeds fell by nearly $40 million in the past fiscal year, the highest percentage drop in the nation.

And you say that like it’s a bad thing? Seriously? Yes, I know that the lottery “helps” out with a lot of things like the Excise Tax, but come on, this isn’t a good way to go about it.

Sure, I’ve gambled before, but I can do the math and realize going in that I’m probably not going to get my money back. Which is why I’m more of a penny slot kind of guy if I’m in a casino (or even better, the half-penny slots).  And which is why I’d rather put my money into the stock market where you at least have a fair chance to make a profit as long as you’re not foolish about what you’re doing.

That said, I don’t have a fully formulated answer to a better solution at the moment.  But I do know that dangling the slim chance of getting “rich” in front of the middle class & poor as a means of collecting more money is just wrong. We’ve got to do better. Maybe the state should start acting like a productive business as opposed to a welfare recipient sitting on the couch munching on chips and chocolates.  Maybe the state should create something useful that our citizens (and anyone else for that matter) could buy instead of legally stealing the money of those who don’t understand probability and/or who have a gambling addition.  But of course, this is an inflated bureaucracy we’re talking about here. I’m just a small business owner who has worked his tail off to make a successful go at it. What do I know?

As a small business owner, this “Health Care Reform” nonsense makes me cringe & uncontrollably start muttering things under my breath. While I won’t get nailed with this at the moment, it’s not hard to see what will happen for many small businesses.

It’s really quite simple actually:

1. Small businesses will hire fewer employees. We’re seeing this already all over the place due to the economy.  Less money equals less jobs. So sure, let’s keep that unemployment ball rolling along.
    
2. Employees will be offered crappy insurance coverage and/or pay through the nose to have it. Anyone who has worked for a small business probably has seen this already. Yes, there is insurance available, but if you’re in need of family coverage you’re probably going to get hosed with the cost of this.  And many will opt to not take the coverage as taking the risk and paying for doctor visits out of pocket looks to be cheaper (I have seen this in very large corporations as well).  So how is that helping the health insurance situation?

Anyway, if they do pass this it’s going to be interesting to watch as they begin to see this work itself out on paper. “What do you mean we’ve poured all of this money into it and we haven’t helped matters? Go fix the numbers and don’t come back until you do. In the meantime, lets raise taxes some more to cover it.”

I know that those two predictions will anger some people, but I don’t see how health care can truly be reformed until we get to the source of the problem; the insurance companies.  While I hate the government meddling in things like this, if all of the people who voted for this administration really want the governments’ help in the matter, how about having them require insurance companies to offer the same policy to everyone for the same price, regardless of the size of your company.  Yes, there are still some flaws in that (like, dare I say it, the portion paid by the employer), but at least it’s a start.

Am I wrong? Let me know your thoughts.