Company to Workers: We Can't Afford to Provide Health Insurance

I don't have a link to a specific story on this, but it happens every day in all 50 states. Many small to mid-sized businesses saddled with tight profit-margins simply can't afford to provide their employees with health care benefits. Given this scenario, maybe it's time for the United States to catch up with the rest of the Western world and provide a single-payer universal health-care plan that's not tied to employment.

The absence of such a system undermines our competitiveness in the global economy as well as being a moral disgrace. How can a society so affluent consider itself to be remotely compassionate when it lets nearly 50 million of its citizens, among them children, go without proper health care?

It's time for elected Democrats to discard milquetoast "affordable" health care schemes that are merely band-aid fixes for a fundamentally broken system. They need to provide real leadership on the issue of comprehensive health care. If they don't, who will?

(By the way, my apologies if this is inappropriate subject matter for Democratic Underground. It's not my intention to detract from real progressive issues like death penalty advocacy, smokers' rights, and keeping Mexicans out of the U.S.)

for small business, but if they are really serious, they will use single-payer to do this. How many of us have taken a job with a large company rather than a small one because the benefits are better? How many of us don't open up a new business because we can't afford to lose our group health care?

I think if the Democratic candidates use this tack to promote single-payer health care, they will get many votes from small business people and entrepreneurial types that would normally vote Republican.

Tying health care to employment is ridiculous. How many people have stayed in a job that was poison for them because they or their spouse had cancer 10 years ago or have a chronic condition like MS and now would not be able to get health insurance if they switched jobs?

employment but they do it to keep people at bad jobs. People will take cuts in other areas and put up with a lot from management because they can't afford to lose that job and the health care insurance it gives. There would be so much creativity released if people did not have to depend on big business for a living.

The wholee idea of tying a permanent need (health insurance) to a temporary benefit (employment) seems crazy.

Historically the two only got tied together through historical accident as during WWII there was a wage freeze, so companies gave more benefits instead. No one knew at the time health insurance would grow to be a huge expense to companies and their workers.

from the company's standpoint. If employees are keeping a crappy job just to continue their health care they ain't gonna be happy productive employees. Plus they probably have a second job to augment the shitty salary they're forced to accept so they'll be tired all the time. I've already heard rumblings about the gov picking up the tab for GM's health care - are our politicians (of both parties) so stupid they can't see that the situation is infinitely worse for small businesses? It couldn't have anything to do with campaign funding.

They are for big business.

If they were for small businesses, things for us would have been made infinitely better about 15 years ago.

despite their universal health care systems. As the case of GM illustrates, the absence of such a system is bad even for big business.

This has nothing to do with supporting big business. Rather its due to a twisted extremist right wing ideology that's infected the GOP and a good segment of the Democratic Party as well.

manufactured in Ontario than in Michigan and health care is the reason. Our system, perpetuated by the insurance industry, is a huge drain on our economy.
I work for a small business and our owner is facing real problems with the cost of our insurance.
I think that everyone's in the same situation and we may get some pressure for reform.

Sounds kind of snide to me. Why detract from a perfectly good post with an unnecessary poke at things you don't like to see on DU?