Posted by The Chief on January 27, 2006 at 14:55:29 (PST):
In Reply to: Re: To Have Healthcare Or Not To Have Healthcare posted by ? on January 27, 2006 at 00:09:02 (PST):
: If you think the prices are kept high to keep them out of the reach of children, why do you think they are so much cheaper in other states? How could they justify this when kids under 18 aren't even supposed to be able to buy cigarettes? Why wouldn't they put a minimum on alcohol? Don't you think there is just a little more concern about kids drinking than there is about them smoking?
: The sole reason for minimum prices on cigarettes is so that the state doesn't get screwwed out of their tax dollars on them.
: Yes, the milk article quotes "record low prices" as the cause for this reduction in the number of milk cows. This is DIRECTLY FROM YOUR POST.." the Milk Marketing Board set the minimum prices too low". What did they set?? Yes, that's right, the MINIMUM price, NOT the MAXIMUM price.
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: So what will they do? They will RAISE the MINIMUM of the price to a HIGHER amount so that it is profitable to produce milk.
: Why is this so hard for you to understand?
: The PUC used to SET (regulate) the prices. When they deregulated the utilities back in the 70's (or the eighties I really don't remember), provisions were kept, that the companies had to get "approval" from the PUC before raising the prices. However, they have NOT, NOT EVEN ONCE, rejected ANY of these RAISES.
: Okay, Mr. Economis, wouldn't what you just said ALSO mean that if the price of oil were kept down, they could get the COAL out cheaper. And if the price of COAL were kept DOWN, that the price of ELECTRICTY would ALSO come down? So, as you SHOULD be able to see, if they regulated the price of oil, coal AND the electrcity, the cost to the consumer would be GREATLY reduced, and the oil,coal AND electrcity companies would still make money....HAND OVER FIST.
: I can't believe you think I'm a liberal! That's hilarious!
: You comments on healthcare are just ridiculous. The providers charge an amount that is higher than the insurance companies will pay so they will be sure to get the most they can from them. This (and the sue happy mentallity of the country) is exactly what has caused the price of healthcare AND insurance to skyrocket. They are all trying to highball each other and it is the consumer AND TAXPAYER, who ends up paying for it all.
I did some research on state minimums of cigarette prices. It seems the reason was not to protect children like I thought and it was not to “get screwed out of their tax money” like you said. It was started to “protect small independent retailers from unfair price competition with larger retailers.” The California Public Health Institute also did a study to see if prices of cigarettes were more expensive in states with minimums prices with states that didn’t have state minimums, and their findings was “not significantly different” so they are not “so much cheaper in other states” like you say.
If you are a producer of milk and buying milk from a farmer, are you going to pay the minimum or maximum for the milk. If you say the maximum, you won’t be in business long. The Milk Marketing Board sets the minimum to protect farmers so they get a fair return. But when the MMB doesn’t keep up with the prices, the farmer loses out and that’s what the article I quoted was about. If milk wasn’t regulated there wouldn’t be any problem. The farmer wouldn’t be slaughtering their cows if producing milk was profitable.
So Mr. Liberal, how would you keep the cost of oil, coal, electricity, gas, natural gas down. I can’t wait to hear this. Your PUC doesn’t work to regulate price, so tell me how you would do it.
So if you know that providers charge an amount that is higher than the insurance co. will pay, don’t you think the Insurance Companies know this, and if they do and pay they must think it’s a fair price otherwise they would set a lower price for the procedures. Now you want to add the government into this mix. You think it’s bad now, just wait.
BTW, the state of Pennsylvania deregulated electric and gas in 1996, not in the 70’s or 80’s like you say.