Once upon a time, the United States had a robust economy with an abundance of well-paying full time jobs. Under the U.S. system - which differs from almost every other developed country - the employer was responsible for providing healthcare coverage to its workers. The system seemed to work great for decades since most families were covered, the extreme poor had Government Medicaid, and the elderly had government-provided Medicare...
Then of course came Reaganomics and *Free Trade*. Full time jobs dwindled for 35 years straight and therefore more and more people lost their medical coverage. Eventually, medical bills became the number one source of bankruptcy. The sight of a family driving up to a hospital and dropping sick kids off at the curb was not uncommon.
Still, the same political party that endorsed *Free Trade* and the corporate liquidation of full time jobs, adamantly resisted any form of public health insurance - despite the fact that prior to Obamacare, obtaining 'individual' health insurance (self-employed, part-time etc.) was costly and in many cases impossible i.e. due to pre-existing medical conditions.
HealthAffairs 2006
"Only 60 percent of firms with 3–199 workers offered coverage in 2005. About 20 percent of workers in firms that offer insurance are not eligible. Small employers with mostly low-wage workers often do not offer coverage. People lose their health insurance when they lose their jobs. Just when people need coverage the most, they are likely to have a hard time paying for it, as when the breadwinner dies or becomes unable to work, or a marriage breaks up. Job-based insurance leaves out many self-employed, nonpoor, and pre-Medicare widows and retirees or forces them to pay a very high price for individual coverage. The economic insecurity associated with employer coverage is greater than what is measured by the existence of forty-six million uninsured Americans."
Now, to say that the implementation of Obamacare was a clusterfuck, would be a ludicrous understatement - in no small part due to government incompetence, but mainly due to the privatized health insurance system that has the highest costs in the world without any comparison. Essentially, these bloated insurance companies were given free hand to write the Obamacare legislation, in order to get them onboard with the program. Every other developed nation with public healthcare, has 'single payer' meaning the government is effectively the insurance company - which is done to avoid the insurance dilemma of 'adverse selection'. Under Obamacare, adverse selection was 'fixed' by making insurance mandatory - which only further pissed off Libertarians who believe in the God-ordained right to self-bankruptcy.
Portable employee-centered benefits are the future
Where was I: the main point - a public healthcare option became a necessity due to the 30+ year ascendancy of the everyone-for-themselves economy. Under that model employees have to look out for themselves - take multiple jobs, change jobs frequently, self-contract etc., and therefore the old employer-driven model of healthcare simply didn't work anymore. Today's employee needs portable benefits. Next they will have to do the same for 401k retirement plans which are vastly skewed towards full time employees and don't provide part-time employees nearly the magnitude of allowable deductions.
To say that the rest of the developed world is ahead of the U.S. in both of these respects, would be a ludicrous understatement. Canada cut employer ties to its RSP (IRA) program two decades ago, so that anyone can make the exact same % contribution, regardless of their employer's (lack of ) generosity.
This Just In
NYT: March 16th, 2015
"The budget “repeals all of Obamacare,” Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, said the same day the Obama administration announced that the law had provided coverage to 16.4 million previously uninsured people."
This Just In
NYT: March 16th, 2015
"The budget “repeals all of Obamacare,” Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, said the same day the Obama administration announced that the law had provided coverage to 16.4 million previously uninsured people."
Only when "they" lose their health coverage will everyone be on the same fucking page. And we know that's coming.
