THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, August 20, 1994              TAG: 9408200015
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   49 lines

WHO WILL PAY HEALTH COSTS? WE WILL

C. W. Sears reminds us who pays for health care (``It's our money,'' letter, Aug. 13).

The fact is that no business pays any health-insurance costs for any employee. The people pay this as well. Everyone needs to break out his ECON 101 book. On Page 487 of mine, it says that ``the end user pays all costs of production.''

A good example of this can be found in the words of Lee Iaccoca, the past CEO of Chrysler Corp. He stated in a speech several years ago that the most expensive single part of any Chrysler car is the $800 that is added to pay for Chrysler workers' health insurance. In other words, the farmer in Suffolk who buys a Chrysler pays the cost of Chrysler health benefits, not Chrysler.

The same holds true for income taxes paid by businesses big and small. The liberals are fond of saying that big business should pay its ``fair share.'' Remember, all costs of production are paid by the end user (consumer).

Another note on this health-care debacle. On a recent news program, Rep. Richard Gephardt said that insured Americans are paying almost $35 billion in extra health-care costs generated by uninsured people who use the emergency rooms. Later in the program he said that we can solve this problem by instituting universal coverage, and we can accomplish this for about $75 billion. It sort of makes you wonder if those people in Washington have a clue.

Proponents of health care always bring up the issue of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as great programs that have worked. The fact is they have not worked at all. Yes, people get all kinds of benefits from those programs. But at what cost? The recipients of the above-mentioned programs are thieves, and they are stealing from their grandchildren; hence, a $5 trillion national debt and rising.

Remember Mr. Sears? He was right about who pays. This is not a debt owed by the government; it's owed by the people.

A simple way to test the reasonableness of any government program is to simply replace the words ``the people'' for the words ``the government'' in all political discussions. This is an especially good tactic when one is in an argument with a liberal (socialist).

NICHOLAS C. ALLEN

Virginia Beach, Aug. 14, 1994 by CNB