![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm going to just brainstorm for a minute...
I don't really get why businesses aren't all for a universal health care system. It could only be good for them, right? If they didn't have to pay insurance for their workers their costs would go down. Not wanting to pay insurance is one of the reasons they outsource jobs to markets in other countries, isn't it?
Maybe they're concerned that the taxes on them would be higher if the government were organizing health care, but imho:
A) businesses should pay taxes more in line with what individuals pay, anyway. Eor pointed out to me the other day that we pay 1/3 of our income in taxes whereas businesses don't pay on their income, they only pay taxes on their profit. I wish I could pay tax only on my profit! AND if they go through bankruptcy they can shed all their debt. Try to do THAT as an individual. You won't be allowed. And yet businesses have just legally won the right to be considered to have the rights of individual humans as far as donating money to their politician or cause of choice. All of the benefits that individuals get, none of the drawbacks.
B) Health care providers charge crazy rates, right now, because more than half the time the insurance companies find some way not to pay. It's a very adversarial system. If we went to a single payer system costs should go down. Of course the way I imagine it is probably far too simplistic - I'd want to put doctors/nurses/hospitals on a salary. You get paid X per year, we'll provide supplies and equipment, now you just concentrate on taking care of whoever walks in the door. I know, I know, there's millions of administrators out there who'd be fighting for their jobs against that sort of idea, it would never be allowed. ;)
Yeah, we'd lose some pencil-pushing jobs, but the jobs that would open up because businesses wouldn't have to pay for health insurance would help. Smaller businesses might find it easier to get off the ground. And people who are currently working only so they can have health insurance (a LOT of elderly people who would like to be fully retired!) would happily drop out of the job market, leaving room for other people.
I don't really get why businesses aren't all for a universal health care system. It could only be good for them, right? If they didn't have to pay insurance for their workers their costs would go down. Not wanting to pay insurance is one of the reasons they outsource jobs to markets in other countries, isn't it?
Maybe they're concerned that the taxes on them would be higher if the government were organizing health care, but imho:
A) businesses should pay taxes more in line with what individuals pay, anyway. Eor pointed out to me the other day that we pay 1/3 of our income in taxes whereas businesses don't pay on their income, they only pay taxes on their profit. I wish I could pay tax only on my profit! AND if they go through bankruptcy they can shed all their debt. Try to do THAT as an individual. You won't be allowed. And yet businesses have just legally won the right to be considered to have the rights of individual humans as far as donating money to their politician or cause of choice. All of the benefits that individuals get, none of the drawbacks.
B) Health care providers charge crazy rates, right now, because more than half the time the insurance companies find some way not to pay. It's a very adversarial system. If we went to a single payer system costs should go down. Of course the way I imagine it is probably far too simplistic - I'd want to put doctors/nurses/hospitals on a salary. You get paid X per year, we'll provide supplies and equipment, now you just concentrate on taking care of whoever walks in the door. I know, I know, there's millions of administrators out there who'd be fighting for their jobs against that sort of idea, it would never be allowed. ;)
Yeah, we'd lose some pencil-pushing jobs, but the jobs that would open up because businesses wouldn't have to pay for health insurance would help. Smaller businesses might find it easier to get off the ground. And people who are currently working only so they can have health insurance (a LOT of elderly people who would like to be fully retired!) would happily drop out of the job market, leaving room for other people.