My experience with the private health care industry has been: (Please click "Comments" to share your stories, good or bad)

Whoa! I don't have health care and I do not care to pay no taxes. I know that Obama will take care of me. He will keep peace in my home if I ever get sick. No doubt the Noble Peace Prize was awarded to him because he will take care of all of us. Just you watch.

Brrrrr, it's getting cold outside. I might need some stimulus money to put some of those solar panels on my apartment building. I'm calling the landlord right now.

Well I can see some fool is up to his or her old tricks! There are no words for how ridiculous that comment is!!!

I am self employed own property that I rent out and pay taxes on it!!! But I have not been able to afford health insurance on my own for the last 3 yrs, but I am not worried because God will take care of me... It is him and only him that I place faith in... No mortal man!

Oh and not all black people live in apartments... I most certainly do not!

My health care is through a Union trust. We do not exclude anyone for a pre-existing condition. Once you qualify the trust will start paying for what ever condition you have. Everyone that we represent under this trust must participate in the trust, that is how we help control costs. That is done through the business we represent. All our members under that contract must participate. Ours is a cadilac plan in it's services but it does have a one million cap which does not protect you if you need a vital organ transplant. Those will eat up the one million dollar cap quickley.

Wonderful. Then we can turn the US population into one big, fat, lazy union.

I'm sure most union members work harder in one day than you will work in your entire life at your computer job that you can't wait to outsource over seas to cut costs.

I'm just sayin', imagine the US population with union health benefits without the requirement to work or earn them. More Americans who say "gimmee, gimmee, gimmee" without wanting or needing to work for it.

Sorry for the callous, previous post. I am very aware that a vast majority of union people work their tails off and are the bread and butter of America.

I am proud and happy to say that I have never worked for a unionized company. I have worked for the same non-union, American company for the last 15 years, and I have no regrets. I have been able to work my way up through the company in a way I highly doubt would have been available to me as a union member. My wife recently worked in the food industry in a unionized plant. She was treated like a robot who was forced to 'go with the flow' and put in her eight hours a day without any say so regarding her daily tasks. Sure her job was safe, as long as she was okay with doing the same exact mundane job every day, day in and day out. And don't be a minute late for her shift, or they would put her off work for the next 3 days! She had zero chance for advancement in the company as a union worker. She worked for the union, not the company it represented. The union could care less about her as long as she paid her dues.

I was glad to get transferred from my job and we relocated, as she now works for a non-union company and is a much happier person to live with. She no longer comes home and says how much she hates her job.

5130TR

I too am sorry for my post about your job. I can't begin to assume what you do day to day and how hard you work to put food on your table. It just makes me crazy when people come down so hard on unions.

Liberty for All
It's great that your wife was able to find another job that she finds more enjoyable. My husband drives a total of 3hrs to and from work everyday and never looks forward to going to work. He works at water treatment plants in sewage day to day, clearly not a glamorous job. That being said, glamorous or not the jobs these workers do is a necessity from the roads and bridges we drive on to the water we drink and the elecricity we rely on.

That being said, I do work with some clients who are unionized, and they are some of the most vindictive and counter-productive employees that I have ever seen. If management tries a new way of getting them to perform at their job, they are routinely grievanced to the union. It turns into an us vs. them mentality that can really turn bitter around contract negotiating time.

And these employees are already the highest paid in that particular industry. It's a shame that the union negotiators would rather hurt the business than take a lower pay raise or lay someone off.

Annie,

I am grateful for your husband and the many other hard workers like him that keep our country beautiful and safe. As far as unions go, my personal experience with them has been 100% negative. Are the unions helping auto workers and steel workers right now? The unions have over-paid and over-incented those workers to the point that we can no longer compete with in the global market. Now instead of being over-paid, thousands of them are not being paid at all, and it's only going to get worse.

Gwendolyn, I'm curious. It sounds like you pay real estate taxes on your properties, but do you pay Federal or state income tax on your income?

That's what we are all talking about when we oppose the gov't option.

Clearly Nancy's bill is crap, and Harry Reid's bill will not make it out of the Senate. I think that we are a long way from realizing any real health care reform. Hopefully, those nincompoops in Congress will spend so much time fighting over this that they won't be able to pass any other bills to wreck our country.

I think it's becoming pretty clear that there will not be any health care reform bill before Christmas. All the Democrats have to do is agree on a program, and they can get it done. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for our country), they can not get their heads together. It is turning into bi-partisan support in favor of defeating the bill.

Obama, Reid and that nimrod Pelosi are going to come out of this smelling bad. But, mark my words, whether they force something through or fail altogether, the Republicans will make HUGE gains in 2010. Can you say "No-bama 2nd term"?