Recipe for disaster

The issues of the midterm legislative office campaign have preoccupied the candidates running for office. Imagine how everyone now is focusing on education, health, public safety and crime, environmental quality, quality of life, economic and social concerns, and the list goes on and on.

As I visited the homes of our ordinary and common people, I learned many real hidden problems from people that have a lot of expectation from our government but are realizing fewer and fewer benefits.

First of all, the business community must be protected at all costs. This is the engine that drives the economy in the CNMI. If any legislative candidate cannot understand this simple and basic of economic principles, let that person take Economics 101. I am not an expert on economic theory and principles, but one thing is certain, the CNMI cannot do without the business community. We need to create an environment that fosters their survival and to grow with limited government intervention. The French word for this is laissez faire. I think that by now my opponent should know this tenet if he is a businessman. I agree with the comment of Mr Efrain
Camacho’s in the October 8, 1999 Saipan Tribune report. We need to create a stable environment for the business community.

Let me thank Senator Thomas Villagomez because he realized the shortcomings of Mr. Juan Tenorio’s Mandatory Health Insurance bill. The senators should think about the survival of the small business establishment.

The small business enterprises are the key players in our economic structure. Everytime that we pass legislation which hurt and inhibit their room for growth as an on-going concern, we hurt a significant part of the economic engine that creates employment and other economic activities. If the government continues to intervene, the legislative machinery of government in actuality is creating more problems than finding good solutions.

If I were the two senators, I will stop shooting from the hips and begin thinking for innovative means to rectify the social and economic problems of the CNMI. We cannot legislate all human problems into a one-size-fits-all mandate such as a “Mandatory Health Insurance”. I said it once, I will say it over and over, that this legislation is a recipe for disaster for the small employer.

Let me instead invite the two good senators to introduce a bill in this legislature that will make it optional for small employers that can afford to participate in the CNMI Government Group Health Insurance Plan. This approach is more feasible and affordable, but more importantly it allows the small employer to make a calculated decision whether it can afford such benefit for its employees. The other reason why this is feasible is that the current CNMI Government Health Insurance Plan can have a broader membership base to spread the risk of insurance. The larger the group the more stable the experience can be (compared to smaller size group) and therefore the cost of risk can be spread over a larger number of enrollees.

The other advantage of this approach is that the CNMI Group Health Insurance Plan has an established benefit coverage structure. There is very little wheel inventing because a plan is already established. The only question remaining is whether the small business owner can afford to buy-in or participate in the CNMI Health Insurance Plan.

Ramon Santos (Maka) Guerrero (Kumoi)