Reform Or No Reform, Employer Provided Health Insurance Is On The Decline

[Yavin4]

That's the one thing that this media is failing to explain to the public. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, the share of American workers covered through Employer Provided Health Insurance (EPHI) declined from 51.1% in 2000 to 48.6% in 2006, and keep in mind that this study was done BEFORE the current economic collapse.

You can read the study here:

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp209/

The implications of this study is that the option of doing nothing on healthcare because of the costs is equally as financially disastrous as doing health reform. Folks, the jobs that are being created today, the little that are being created, are being done so with the employer providing health insurance. This means that we will see an even greater spike in the number of uninsured in the very near future.

Now, the Republicans understand that EPHI is fading, and they do have a plan. They want to give every American a puny stipend to buy their own health insurance. IOW, they want to throw all Americans to the predatory wolves of the health insurance. Sure, you can buy health insurance, but it won't cover anything. Even worse, you won't know it won't cover you until you need it, and good luck to you when you have to get through a medical emergency and fight these predatory health insurance companies at the same time.

For me, a public option is the deal breaker with me and this country. When Wall Street needed a bailout, a $700 billion check was on its way in a matter of weeks. When Bush and Cheney lied to the American people about Iraq, the troops were rolling into action without question or debate. But good lord, when a real crisis falls upon us, the media wails and cries about the costs, damn the human element. Damn the fact that our health care system kills more Americans than 9/11 or Saddam Hussein.

Regardless of Obama's election, I will move to Canada if we don't get healthcare reform. I won't go into my 50s in this nation. This truly is No Country for Old Men. It won't be easy emigrating to Canada, but growing old in a country without public health insurance is not an option.

[Horse with no Name]

1. As long as MORE people are insured than NOT insured

status quo will continue to exist.
Americans are very selfish.
As long as they got theirs, your lack thereof really matters not.
Now when theirs is gone...it will become a national emergency.

[Yavin4]

3. But That Situation Is Changing

Again, the study I cited looked at the decline of Employer provided health insurance during the Bush "boom" years. Today, the situation is far, far worse.

But, you're right. Americans don't give a fuck unless it fucks with their shit. Like I said, No Country for Old Men.

[raccoon]

8. Yep, I know such people. Make me want to smack 'em. nt

[knixphan]

9. likewise.

[Hannah Bell]

2. canada may not be the haven you imagine. related forces are at work there.

[Yavin4]

4. I'll Take My Chances

The bullshit from these "related forces" won't work in Canada. The culture and the population of the people are quite different.

In the U.S., you have a large majority of the people are convinced that they will be millionaires one day, so they don't need govt. programs. Canadians don't share that brand of idiocy.

[Hannah Bell]

6. It's already working.

not trying to be a pill or discourage your plan, the effort is years behind ours, but just fyi.



Quebec court strikes down private health care law.(CANADA NOTES)
Catholic New Times | July 3, 2005 | COPYRIGHT 2005 Catholic New Times, Inc. This material i

OTTAWA -- In a "historic" decision against single-tier health care, Canada's top court this month struck down a Quebec law that banned private insurance for medically necessary services.

The Supreme Court ruled against the ban in the province, charging that the law violates Quebec's charter of rights. Medical experts on both sides of the debate now forecast the emergence of a "parallel, private system." The Canadian Medical Association maintained the decision would "fundamentally change the health-care system in Canada as we now know it."


Will health care reform lead to privatization?
geneviève allard

To privatize or not to privatize — that was the question when a cross-section of stakeholders gathered at Samuel Bronfman House on March 2 to debate the delivery of health care.

The audience included community workers, nurses, laboratory technicians, students from Concordia and from the Université de Montréal’s medical school. Five guests from various medical fields shared their views on whether privatization is viable.

http://cjournal.concordia.ca/journalarchives/2005-06/mar_9/006451.shtml


The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) released a report<41> in July 2007 endorsing private healthcare as a means to improve an ailing healthcare system. The current president of the CMA, Dr. Brian Day, is the owner of the largest private healthcare hospital in Canada and a proponent of mixed public and private healthcare in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(Canada)


etc.

[kenny blankenship]

5. I regret that I have but one K&R to give for this post

[raccoon]

7. It definitely is in my state, SC. I work for a state agency where 50% of the employees are

part-time, no benefits.