Low Cash Flow

Now how on earth am I going to stay off Medicaid?  Obamacare says that everyone under an income level of about $30,000 a year MUST go on Medicaid, the poor people’s insurance.  The last 3 years I was in business, I made $29K a year and that got me curious.  How much would I have made had I not continuously taken money out of savings to help my businesses?  Answer is that for 2 decades I averaged $29,000 a year.  Rats!  Do I have to be on poorhouse insurance now?  Medicaid hardly has any doctors accepting patients.  They all look like Gosnell.  And under Obamacare, the program is going to be Death By Bureaucracy.

            How does this Low Cash Flow come about?  Well, many small businessmen are like many farmers.  They show very little cash flow but their assets continue to increase in value.  That’s why almost half the Millionaires Next Door are farmers who own valuable land. When a quarter section of grass brings $200,000 around here yet only generates $3500 in annual income—a little less than 2% return—you can see how hard it is to make a living.  But that is what farmers, small businessmen and ranchers do.  They learn to live on less than $20K a year and enjoy it.  Imagine a socialist economy where everyone is paid $40K a year.  If 49 out of 50 people spend all they make, they have nothing but social security to retire on.  But say, that last guy who gets his 40 thou can live on 30.  He saves $10,000 a year and winds up the Millionaire Next Door.  And since the above-mentioned careers have such frightening financial ups and downs, this is precisely what these guys do just to not go broke. “If you can just break even when hogs are sellin’ bad—then you can make big money as a hog man.”

            If you are one of these kinds of folks, you tend to laugh at the TV journalists who cry about “the poor”. They treat the entire universe as if people are salaried and can’t control their spending.  Even if you aren’t a millionaire (many businessmen have had bad health, horrid struggles, and other problems that short circuit their wealth building) but are still in business for yourself—and there are 11million of us, 10% of the population—you shake your head in confusion over media stories and figures of speech.  I know all sorts of wealthy people today who spent most of their lives living below the poverty line.  And still they live a rich life full of grandkids and friends.

            So are we going on Medicaid, as dictated by Uncle Sugar?  Uncle can’t figure out what is wrong with us, the people who build America’s businesses.  He has offered states a big sugar tit of federal funding, at least for a couple years for states to expand Medicaid.  Who could refuse?  Well, half the states evidently.  Oklahoma is determined to pay our own Medicaid and has set aside an extra $40 million to handle the people Obamacare is going to threaten with fines or jail time if they don’t buy insurance or go on Medicaid.  But by funding ourselves, the Medicaid rolls retain the old limits and are going to expand about 20% instead of doubling like Obama wants. 

            It is as if the Oklahoma Peronistas are telling Peron to go back to his lousy Nazi villa. Stop trying to ram your healthcare down our throats!  We will take care of our own.  But don’t underestimate Peron.  His healthcare is going to try to demand that all policies conform to what Uncle Sugar requires.  No more insurance policies with a large deductibles to make them affordable for small businesses and farmers.  They will require very low deductibles like the no-assets-no-nothing poor can only afford. Of course the whole intent is to drive Oh Ye of Little Budget into the arms of government bureaucrats.  We are here from the government to help you.  (Reagan’s “Nine most terrifying words of the English language.”)

            Still, I take comfort in the resolve of our Oklahoma legislature and Governor and Insurance Commissioner.  Seems like almost all these people are resistant to Federal Dole.  Obamacare may collapse before it really manages to corner me and put the Medicaid Star of David on my chest. And why would OK pols be so resistant?  It’s because almost all of ‘em are former farmers and small businessmen who learned to live on low cash flow.

Make sense?