Got Health Insurance? Fighting for a Public Option Might Just Get You a Raise!

[marmar]

Got Health Insurance? Fighting for a Public Option Might Just Get You a Raise!

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted June 29, 2009.

Controlling health care costs isn't just necessary for the health of our economy -- it'd also be likely to boost personal incomes.




The best argument for overhauling our ridiculously expensive and dysfunctional health care system -- an argument one doesn't often hear in the corporate media -- is that fixing it would put more dollars in your pocket, even if you already have health coverage.

If there's enough pressure on Congress, we'll add a well-designed public insurance option to the current mix of private insurance and government health care programs. It would be like (the highly popular) Medicare program, but open to all comers. We'd end up with a very large insurance pool that would lower costs through efficiencies of scale. The plan would be able to drive a hard bargain with providers and cut down on overhead costs, which amount to about 30 percent of spending in the U.S. right now.

And it wouldn't just contain costs. A publicly administered insurance program would also protect Americans from the kind of health insurance nightmares we hear about so frequently, with families bankrupted by out-of-pocket expenses or stuck in jobs and relationships they hate in order to hold on to their insurance.

But at the end of the day, people are most interested in the heft of their wallets. Ezra Klein argues that if people understood the health care debate in these terms -- reform the system and control costs; get a handle on costs and get a pay raise! -- it'd be a political game-changer.

"Most workers think stagnant wages mean their employer is paying them less," he writes. "They don't know that the main reason for stagnant wages is that their wage increases are going to pay for their health insurance premiums." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/140960/got_health_insurance_fighting_for_a_public_option_might_just_get_you_a_raise%21/

[Bluzmann57]

1. Of course it would put $ in our pockets

If we don't have to pay higher premiums to the employer provided insurance plan, that money is going toward the worker who will likely spend it elsewhere. Like maybe buying a new GM or Chrysler car, or maybe an American made large appliance. Or darn near anything. So health insurance is not only a moral issue, it's an economic issue as well. More money means more spending means more jobs...Seems simple to me. But what do I know? I'm just a simple working stiff.

[dkf]

2. Bringing down the expected raise in costs isn't really putting

money in our pockets, its reducing the decline in our paychecks.

And that depends on insurance companies deciding they don't want to raise our premiums, which I am highly skeptical of also.