Bush boom my ass. Some dispatches, courtesy of The New York Times, that don't exactly point to a rosy future:

#1:

Kevin Thornton ..., 41, left a stable job with good health coverage in 1998 for a higher salary at a dot-com company that went bust a few months later. Since then, he has worked on contract for various companies, including one that provided insurance until the project ended in 2000. "I failed to keep up the payments that would have been required to maintain my coverage," he said. "It was just too much money."

Mr. Thornton is one of more than 43 million people in the United States who lack health insurance, and their numbers are rapidly increasing because of ever soaring cost and job losses. Many states, including Texas, are also cutting back on subsidies for health care, further increasing the number of people with no coverage.

The majority of the uninsured are neither poor by official standards nor unemployed. They are accountants like Mr. Thornton, employees of small businesses, civil servants, single working mothers and those working part time or on contract.

"Now it's hitting people who look like you and me, dress like you and me, drive nice cars and live in nice houses but can't afford $1,000 a month for health insurance for their families," said R. King Hillier, director of legislative relations for Harris County, which includes Houston....

The insurance crisis is especially visible in Texas, which has the highest proportion of uninsured in the country — almost one in every four residents. The state has a large population of immigrants; its labor market is dominated by low-wage service sector jobs, and it has a higher than average number of small businesses, which are less likely to provide health benefits because they pay higher insurance costs than large companies.

State cuts to subsidies for health insurance to help close a $10 billion budget gap will cost the state $500 million in federal matching money and are expected to further spur the rise in uninsured. In September, for example, more than half a million children enrolled in a state- and federal-subsidized insurance program lost dental, vision and most mental care coverage, and some 169,000 children will lose all insurance by 2005....

#2:

You probably already pay a monthly fee for access to cable TV and cellphone service. Someday soon, you may also have to come up with $20 to $30 a month for access to your doctor's services, on top of any co-payments, premiums and deductibles you're already paying for health insurance.

It may sound far-fetched, but it has already happened in at least three states - Washington, Ohio and Illinois - and health experts say it's probably starting in other places as well. And it's not the health plans or employers that are responsible. It's the doctors themselves.

Jim Simpkins said he received a letter in January from his doctor at the Polyclinic in Seattle, a multiple-specialty practice with 97 physicians, notifying him that he would have to start paying a $25 monthly retainer fee if he wanted to continue as a patient. The extra money, the letter said, would permit his doctor, Bradley Harris, to limit the size of his practice, allowing for same-day (and longer) appointments. In addition, the letter promised health seminars, a newsletter and eventual e-mail access to the doctor....


#3:

Rob McIntosh feels like he's been jilted - 10 times in a row. Over the past year, Mr. McIntosh, a graphic designer and creative director, has come close to snagging a job that many times, only to be told "no thanks" in the 11th hour. One company promised him a job that later vanished. Another asked him to complete hundreds of dollars of freelance work as a "tryout," then balked at payment. Still another invited him to interviews on four occasions for a position that he is now convinced never existed.

Mr. McIntosh, who had never waited more than three weeks for a job offer, couldn't conceive that employment was so elusive - or employers so demanding....

Every hiring process Mr. McIntosh has gone through since losing his job at Scient has lasted at least two months and frequently longer....

..."In a boom economy employers are reluctant to put up hoops," said Matt Ferguson, president of CareerBuilder.com. "But now they're saying there's eight things an employee has to do to be considered."...

#4:

The attitudes of buyers at an office furniture show in Baltimore a few weeks ago probably won't appear in any forecaster's spreadsheet or on a Wall Street analyst's Bloomberg machine. But as economists struggle to make sense of the current recovery, the show may be among the best indicators around....

So what was the verdict at the National Exhibition of Contract Furnishings East, or NeoCon East, one of the largest office furniture shows in the country? ...

...while there was plenty of interest, manufacturers at the show complained that there was too much browsing and not enough placing of orders. "They want the literature; they want the pricing," said Lynn Dean, operations manager for the Michela Group, a company that represents several furniture companies. But, she said, when it comes to actual purchases, "It's not as good as it could be."

....Based on anecdotal information, said Mr. Reardon, the trade group executive director, "it's the Fortune 500, the larger companies that are not as aggressive in buying right now."

Herman Miller and Steelcase Inc., traditionally the companies that have sold to the largest clients, finished the quarter that ended Aug. 30 with sales declines; Herman Miller was down 6.5 percent, and Steelcase by 7.2 percent, both in contrast to the year-earlier period.

...The problem for the economy is that major corporations account for roughly half of all business spending. If they are not yet confident enough to spend on office furniture, it is unlikely that they're spending at a very healthy clip over all....