Thats what healthcare reform is trying to do. It's trying to allow us be one big pool. Health plans are one of the few things where the bigger the pool, the better. The smaller the pool, the worse it is.
But if your point is that we dont need legislation to do this. I actually agree with you. We don't. Everything both bills are trying to accomplish, in theory, we could do ourselves. And until about 30 yrs ago, we did. It was called employer based insurance. We are a country of about 94% employment. Just about everyone works in this country, during normal times, and thats why employer based plans were used most. Working is the one thing we have most in common, and therefore the work place was the obvious place for us to pool together. Back when workers believed in fighting for whats best for their families, they bargained health and retirement plans as part of their compensation. Once upon a time, just about everyone who worked had decent health insurance. Our nation was built on the concept of employer based insurance. Once workers became unable to bargain health plans as part of their compensation packages, the pool shrunk and costs have risen.
As a strong believer in labor, I do have a small problem with the fact that a growing number of working Americans lost the ability to negotiate good health plans as part of their compensation. I feel this is something the generations of workers before us were able to do, and I hate the fact that this generation of workers has given up so much that the workers before us literally died to achieve.
There is a very small part of me that wishes both partys would turn to the America people and say "you have the right to collectively bargain healthcare with your employers, now use it." Taft - Harley health plans already do what these bills are trying to accomplish, just on a smaller scale. If more workers fought to negotiate a deal where their employers particiapted in Taft- Harley plans, the pool of the insured would grow and healthcare costs could be maintained.
Re: Health Care Summit.
There are 2 replies to this message
