In 1985 I paid $20 a month for family health insurance. Today I pay over $350 a month for roughly the same coverage. If you do the math {((350-20)/20)*100 = 1650%}, that is a premium increase of 1650% over the past twenty-four years. By comparison, in 1985, the cost of gasoline was around $1.20 a gallon on the East Cost. If the cost of gasoline had increased 1650% over the last twenty-four years, we would all pay around $21 a gallon today on the East Cost for gasoline. Just consider the financial burden that $21 a gallon gasoline would cause on the average American family. So, how is it then that we allow the Health Insurance Industry to levy such astronomical premium increases on the health and well-being of our families? Well, the time has come to end this strong-arm approach used by health insurance companies and the way to do that is for Congress to pass a Health Care Reform Bill that includes a Strong Public Option.

No matter what health insurance companies say, they are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Health insurance companies have no intension of reducing the ridiculously high salaries they pay their executives. They have no interest in lowering premiums or expanding coverage to all Americans. Health insurance companies are in business for one reason only, to make large profits for their share holders. And make profits they do.

Consider for a moment how the current health care system model stifles entrepreneurship in this country. Potential entrepreneurs and potential small