August 19, 2004
Healthcare
From the NY Times:
A relentless rise in the cost of employee health insurance has become a significant factor in the employment slump, as the labor market adds only a trickle of new jobs each month despite nearly three years of uninterrupted economic growth.Government data, industry surveys and interviews with employers big and small indicate that many businesses remain reluctant to hire full-time employees because health insurance, which now costs the nation's employers an average of about $3,000 a year for each worker, has become one of the fastest-growing costs for companies. Health premiums are sapping corporate balance sheets even more than the rising cost of energy.
In the second quarter, the cost of health benefits rose at a 12-month rate of 8.1 percent - more than three times the inflation rate and the rate of increases in wages and salaries.
"Health care is a major reason why employment growth has been so sluggish," said Sung Won Sohn, the chief economist at Wells Fargo.
Sounds like a pretty good argument for universal healthcare, maybe something along the lines of the Canadian or French system. Of course, as the GOP would tell us, that would be socialism. So, would you rather have a job and healthcare or French socialism? You didn't need that job anyway, did you?
Canadian TV news shows are commenting on how Bush is getting "pressured" by GOP leaders in Congress to allow Canadian drugs to be imported. My guess is that DeLay and Frist are not backing this, but almost everyone else is. The GOP leadership is the most unethical group of rat bastards we've had in Congress since the 1870's.
Posted by: Steven Staton at August 19, 2004 08:20 AMAnd, speaking of healthcare, jobs and individual physical and financial well-being in general, there an interesting book coming out called "The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know About America's Economic Future", recently discussed on Financial Sense Newshour. A few tidbits:
- to solve the coming social service and medicare income gap, in the US, they could 1.) Increase federal income taxes by 65%, cut medicare benefits by 45%, or increase payroll taxes by 95%.
- 401ks will, inevitably, be taxed at much higher rates than most people think today. So, according to him, 401ks and mutual funds really aren't the tax haven that most people think they are.