America's Failing Health.......Krugman

[RedEarth]

America's Failing Health
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Working Americans have two great concerns: the growing difficulty of getting health insurance, and the continuing difficulty they have in finding jobs. These concerns may have a common cause: soaring insurance premiums.

In most advanced countries, the government provides everyone with health insurance. In America, however, the government offers insurance only if you're elderly (Medicare) or poor (Medicaid). Otherwise, you're expected to get private health insurance, usually through your job. But insurance premiums are exploding, and the system of employment-linked insurance is falling apart.

Some employers have dropped their health plans. Others have maintained benefits for current workers, but are finding ways to avoid paying benefits to new hires - for example, by using temporary workers. And some businesses, while continuing to provide health benefits, are refusing to hire more workers.

In other words, rising health care costs aren't just causing a rapid rise in the ranks of the uninsured (confirmed by yesterday's Census Bureau report); they're also, because of their link to employment, a major reason why this economic recovery has generated fewer jobs than any previous economic expansion.



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/opinion/27krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

[BootinUp]

1. Krugman...out front with a winning strategy

He points out that Canada's businesses have an advantage over ours due to the cost of benefits here.

[Cassandra]

2. He gave a very brief mention of this...

in a column earlier in the summer. I'm pleased to see him expand on it.

[cprise]

3. My employer is moving jobs to Canada

...because it is less expensive.

Yet my boss insists that Canadian healthcare is (somehow) a failure.