Or, more likely, he would make the same $$ and not have health insurance.

Rate this comment: 1  1

While I was a commissioner I continued to pay for my BCBS policy because I would loose my county health care coverage unless I served for 12 years. I joked to many people that I didn’t cry any tears when I lost the election but I would really miss meeting so many different and interestiing people in the course of the job and I would definitely miss my county health insurance!

It was an awesome benefit and county employees always mentioned to me how grateful they were for their health insurance even if they could have found another job which paid a higher salary it was a reason to stay with the county. The county has worked really hard to minimize the cost increases of the health plan to taxpayers without dramatically increasing the cost to employees.

Rate this comment: 1  0

Why does that employer pay that worker 40k? Why not 35k? It’s because the market has set the rate for the specific experience and demand of that job at 40k. If the employer was only willing to pay 35k she would not be able to fill the position.

Further, that worker is not simply making 40k; he is making 40k PLUS health insurance. A family of 4 in Wake county can get a policy with $1500 deductible for about $690 a month. By being in the 25% tax bracket,, our family would have to earn $906 a month to cover that cost. That comes to $10,880 a year. Where Cato fails to mention is that the raise would only be $8160, the cost of the policy to the employer. We would have to extend the same tax situation to the worker for it to come to 10k.

Again, why does that employer pay 40k + insurance [that costs her only $8160]? Because the market demands it. Now, I am not so naive to think that if we took away the employers tax advantage resulting in next to no employer base coverage, that the employer would immediately dump an extra 8k into wages, but in time, the market would re-level and workers WOULD receive a raise if you will.

They expect sleep-deprived workers stretched thin from juggling jobs, kids, shopping, church, home and car repairs, bills, etc., to take a graduate course in America’s labyrinthine health care system and to comparison shop for medical procedures when little Johnny gets sick.

Who doesn’t do this today? I shop for doctors, medicine and procedures. Do you ever look around and see how much office visits cost? Or nurse questions? Do you ever go to the mini-clinic in the drug store instead of the doctor? Shopping will reduce price and increase quality and choice.

Freedom-loving employees who wish to manage their own health care could drop out of their employers’ group health plans. Employers would simply roll over $10,000 into employees’ health savings accounts.

Imagine if the State gave employers a tax advantage to pay us with food plans. That is, if Acme Corp could buy us a food plan tax free. We would see the same thing as health insurance. Employers would compensate us with a food policy. We would sign up and have food delivered to us as prescribed by the plan. Do you think that’s a good idea?

Me neither. So why do you think it’s a good idea for health insurance?

If a liberal said anything remotely like that, the torches and pitchforks brigade would be in the streets calling for his Marxist head on a platter.

But you don’t. Whether it be health insurance or social security, you want the state controlling the money. Very weird.

Huh? I thought “employer based” medical insurance had its origins several decades ago as a way to avoid national single-payer medical insurance, avoid raising wages, and had the added bonus of a tax advantage to the employer?? I could be wrong.

Hi Big Ivy, I think you are. During his administration, FDR imposed wage controls. Businesses were no longer able to pay more, government limited the amount of money Acme Corp could compensate their employees. In order to get around that crazy law, they began to offer health insurance as a means to compensate their workers. In 1943, the IRS gave them the tax free status and from there on it just became a no brainer.

Rate this comment: 0  0

Mr Ramsey, I understood that elected officials in Buncombe County received healthcare for life or at least the option to receive healthcare.

Rate this comment: 1  0

Don’t call it health care. Think of it as a car.

Present system for many/most: employer helps pay for an old Yugo that runs half the time.

Cato plan: employee gets handed $10k and due to lack of regulation finds that all $10k will buy is a stripped hulk of a Yugo with no engine. But for $100k he could get a limo with champagne.

Socialized government evil health care: like having a subway that comes to every house. Not perfect, but sooo much better than the old Yugo.

You can still buy the limo with bubbly if you want it so much.

Rate this comment: 4  1

If health care costs can be contained and we have an economy sufficiently vibrant so virtually everyone willing to work can find a job and those willing to obtain additional training can find a better paying job, many (certainly not all) of these problems will be solved. No system will solve every problem.

Rate this comment: 0  0

However, when one’s medical insurance is tied to an employer and there is a loss (or lack) of employment then a genuine problem arises. That is the situation for far too many people.

Rate this comment: 0  0

Rate this comment: 0  0

The discussion I thought was about employer based insurance but if they close shop then where does the money come from? Where it would under any circumstance out of someone’s pocket, if it were a single payer then you and I would have to pay taxes to support it because the government can’t continue to print money with impunity.

I didn’t say that people don’t have medical insurance because they lack personal responsibility. I said if they had the money in their pocket then could spend it in any way they feel benefits their families. In the case of the Hess station powerball ticket, that family now has $60M after taxes, awesome for them, couldn’t happen to better folks!

Rate this comment: 1  0

As far as I’ve been able to tell from pricing Blue Cross, etc., I could buy private health insurance at my advanced age of 61 for about $600.00 a month and that policy would have a $5,000.00 a year deductible. So much for investing the balance of the $10,000.00 a year that the employer will supposedly pony up.

I’m not sure where the money is supposed to come from if my employer goes out of business, moves the bulk of the operation overseas, or has a lay-off as a cost cutting measure.

I am sure that I’m offended at suggestions that people don’t have medical insurance because they lack personal responsibility. Actually, the people who do not work, pay rent from their own earnings or pay mortgages, buy cars, etc., can go to the E.R. for very expensive routine medical care with complete impunity – they have nothing to lose.

Rate this comment: 2  0

Nathan Ramsey wrote: “Employers will provide whatever compensation package is necessary to attract the employees they need to do the job.”

Very true. This is why so many Americans don’t have health insurance under our employer-based, insurance-rationed, system.

In the absence of single-payer, access to healthcare is largely dependent on economic & social status. This will remain the case even with reforms working their way through congress.

Rate this comment: 4  0

Why should employers be responsible for paying an employee’s health care bills, if so then let them pay for their utility bills since most of us need electricity to make it? The only reason employers pay for healthcare differently than other expenses is because tax treatment allows the employer to deduct the expense but it is tax free income to the employee. Employers will provide whatever compensation package is necessary to attract the employees they need to do the job.

Rate this comment: 2  4

Rate this comment: 3  2

Republicans: A stupid person’s idea of what a thoughtful person sounds like.

5  3