damn wmarinic! I hate it when they delete your posts before I get to read them. Still trying to figure out the criteria.

It is a very, very sad state of affairs when people (such as the Gazette Editorial writers) think that it is good to make laws telling people what to drink and eat. God help us.

Ronzo, I don't want to get into this again, but you are not subsidizing Jim Fisher or any small business health care plans. You are in a different pool. Rates are calculated based on risk. The pool you belong to is very expensive for a number of reasons and thus the risk is high and you pay a high premium. What are the factors that make your pool high risk? Many are older people who naturally have higher medical bills. Some are individuals who do not purchase health insurance until it is needed. There are a myriad of factors. The small business pool is not as risky because many of the participants are younger or for some reason, less likely to have high medical costs. So the premiums are lower for this pool. Again, you are not subsidizing the business pool. I agree that there should be a way to tweak the systems to lower the rates that individuals pay, but the wholesale takeover of the health care system by the government can only end badly.

Ronzo, I didn't mean to sound condescending. The individual health care coverage market is very complex. I have done a little more research and can see your pain. My coverage is from the small business that I own with 3 employees and I don't have the time to look into what my costs would be buying it as an individual. I know that I have coverage for mandated items that there is no way I would by if I didn't have to and that drives my costs way up. And I also know that I have put a tremendous amount of money in and recieved very little back in coverage. I gotta go now....good luck Ronzo

The whole program should be thrown out. We have such twisted minds sometimes. Look how this works. Schools districts take some of your money, then NYS takes some of your money. Then NYS apparently gives back some of the money they took from you in the first place to compensate for the money that the school district took from you. How about everybody stop taking so much money in the first place?

Ronzo, I am acutely aware of the cost of health care coverage as I have paid for my own for the last 14 years. I suggest you keep looking and fighting for lower premiums. I have had people tell me they are paying between 1300 and 1800 from CDPHP. I personally pay $1300 from CDPHP. Do you know one of the reasons, premiums are so high? Government interference. In NYS there are 77 mandates that the government says must be included in plans. If the state got out of the business of telling us what to do regarding health care, we would all be better off.

Actually wmarincic, I think they can vote if they live in the US. But they should still learn English. To become an actual naturalized citizen of the US, you must demonstrate a proficiency in the English language. If a voter wants to bring an assistant to translate or help them with the process, they are entitled to do that but asking the citizens of this State or this country to pay for this assistance is wrong.

Ronzo, you have made these statements before and there is something wrong with them. If you are paying much more than 1400/month for health care coverage with $4000 deductible per person, you are being taken to the cleaners. Plus you were being overcharged last year if the premium came down this year with a lower deductible applied. It is not making sense.

If you can't speak English, how do you know what the candidates campaign platform is? If you live in America, job #1 should be to learn how to speak English.

I suggest that young working men and women move south to Pennsylvania and see if you can get a good job in the natural gas industry, because you're not going to get one here in NY.