False choice.
Right now we have the government subsidizing (through tax credits) employer based healthcare.
We should change that to subsidizing individual based healthcare.
That would be just fine by me actually. It's still the government paying for it though...
And it gets employers out of the system. I don't see why your health should be tied to employment.
Because the system was set up in a time when Bob C. America went to work for "the company" and was afforded a nice salary, pension, healthcare, and vacation time if he was "management" and while he duly voted Republican, it was understood that "the company" should provide these things since Bob was going to be devoting his working life to it. For Bill T. America, you went to work at "the plant" and were afforded a decent wage, pension, healthcare, and vacation time fought for and guaranteed by your union and because you were "a worker", you voted for Democrats, and it was understood that "the plant" should provide these things since Bill was going to be devoting his working life to it.
Then after 30 or so years of such a system, these goliath companies, with corporate ladders and such, began to stagnate because there was no new innovation. Coupled with greatly higher business costs due to inflation and higher oil prices, profits began to tumble. Then came Reagan with his idea to spur entrepreneurship and investment by slashing taxes on the rich and on investments. While innovation needed to be spurred, I believe, as a liberal, that he did it the wrong way.
Thus, companies began to take an approach of "we only need you for a little while" and you were expected to work for that company until you got sick of it and then you were to take your own retirement account and move onto the next company. At the same time, they slashed wages and benefits and rewarded their executives with the extra money.
Now we have a ton of innovation and lots of people who would like to be entrepreneurs but for the lack of resources in order to make their dreams reality as well as an endless mountain of red tape from centuries of supplementary government that never reforms or repeals or does anything except add a new regulation when someone screws up and it becomes clear we shouldn't allow such behavior anymore.
So. If we're going to have an economy where people move around frequently from job to job where they constantly have to be trained... then businesses should be decoupled completely from healthcare except the taxes they pay and they should be forced to provide benefits and pay as well as the training appropriate for the employees they are hiring. Those employees should be guaranteed health insurance and enough of a retirement to keep them out of poverty by the government, and businesses should pay employees enough that they can save to make up the rest.
Right now we do not have that.
Poll
