Caymen said:
By Wal-Mart not offering affordable health insurance for its employees, they are bringing up our health insurance costs because when a Wal-Mart employee without insurance goes to the hospital for free care, the cost is transfered to you and I causing OUR insurance rates to go up.
That's all great conjecture, but other than intuition I don't see how you can back up any of those opinions stated as fact.
There are countless jobs in this country that don't offer health care. What's to say that if your typical Wal*Mart employee wasn't employed by Wal*Mart that they wouldn't have one of those other jobs without health benefits?
Also, what's to say that several Wal*Mart employees aren't using their employment as part-time, supplemental income, working as a second wage earner for the family; a family with a spouse that has health insurance for the family?
Or, what's to say that a large number of Wal*Mart employees are semi-retired, covered under medicare, etc?
Also, who is to say that the average Wal*Mart employee is a significant drain on the health care system?
What's the solution Caymen?
- Force all employers with over 50 (or some minimum other number of) employees to provide health insurance?
- Force all employers to provide health insurance?
- If we start to force employers to provide health insurance what are the requirements; full coverage of all yearly premiums?
- Or partial coverage of yearly premiums with employee contribution automatically deducted from payroll?
- If payroll contributions are made, are there any restrictions on maximum amounts?
- Do part-time employees qualify for benefits?
The questions around this subject are staggering, and each with no easy answers.
The only possible solution that I would be in favor of is to provide tax incentives to business that wish to provide healthcare benefits to their employees...and by that I mean more than the tax-exempt status such benefits enjoy today. No, I mean something like every $1 spent in healtcare benefits is not only non-taxed, but also reduces other tax burdens by $1 (or more). That, and make HSA accounts easier to manage, and you begin to have good start. In this way businesses, both big and small, can contribute money into employees HSA accounts and get a big tax break.
The only problem with this is that HSA accounts are hard to manage. They put a burden on the employee to seek out good deals on their healthcare, to itemize, to track expenses, and to ask questions about their health care costs. Frankly, many of the types of people that are FORCED to work a Wal*Mart job would find that burden daunting.
TJR