Wouldn't socialized health care be good for Business in America?

Question

1) Employers wouldn't have to provide Health Care.

2) Employees would be able to leave a job they didn't like, but were tied to because of the benefits. Employers and Employees would benefit from this. People could pursue their entreprenurial activities more freely. Employers wouldn't be stuck with employees that didn't want to be there.

Answer 1

Socialised health care is good for business except for the medical insurance business.
The tax payments involved are not that high compared to what some people are paying for health insurance. Right now so many Americans have no health insurance, if they get sick they are more likely to be unable to work and claim welfare. With socialised medicine these people would cease to be a tax burden and get back to work. The USA actually spends more per head on health care than other western countries but only a fraction of people are covered. The rest are a burden on others taxes. It would be much simpler to cover everyone and those paying medical insurance now would actually save money. Anyone who wanted more flexibility in the care provided could be free to take out supplemental insurance.
People would still be stuck in jobs they don't want as everyone has bills to pay and health care benefits are not the only incentive to staying in work. Most people are tied to their jobs for the salary.
In the UK health costs are covered by National Insurance payments, 9% of wages (with a cap on total payments for people on high incomes) and that also covers sick pay, disability benefits and pensions.
How many Americans can get all that for just 9% of their pay. My husband and I pay 65% of his pension just to cover our health insurance so we both need to work as well to pay the bills.

Answer 2

I agree with you, as does the CEO of Wal-Mart.

American business has a hard time competing with foreign companies at least in part because those foreign companies keep wages lower because their employees are covered by national health plans.

A similar medical policy in America would perhaps help make us competitive once again, in a more satisfying way than the devalued dollar does.

Additional benefits to business and society would be that people might be healthier with improved regular access to clinics (the stats from those other nations are better than ours almost across the board), and not feel the monetary pressure to show up at work even when they're sick because they can afford neither the doctor visit nor the lost wages.

Answer 3

Anything run by government is inefficient, wasteful, and likely to be fraught with fraud, waste and abuse.

And eventually, as costs mount and it consumes ever-greater amounts of the budget, health care will be rationed, directly or indirectly.

Indirectly would mean that by decreasing salaries or reducing maintenance or purchase of equipment, that there would be fewer people going into medical fields and thus fewer practitioners, or there would be fewer facilities available.

I never cared much for 3rd party health care, but it was government's fault that it came to pass in the first place. When government, in its infinite wisdom (sarcasm) decided to have wage freezes after the war (unconstitutional, to say the least) that prompted companies to offer other benefits - medical, dental, etc.

And government has made it almost embedded, because they do not allow tax credits or exemptions for personally paid-for health insurance like they give to corporations. Add to that the fact that government also pads the coverage requirements so that you have to pay for addiction treatment, mental health, etc, even though you may not want or need it.

If the government gave me the same tax write off that businesses get, and allowed me to decide what my coverages entailed, I'd run away from 3rd party payer in a heartbeat.

Why is government so against us having control over our own health care insurance?

Answer 4

1. By definition of course.

2. The existence of benefits is one reason to choose a job. It allows workers to shop around their skills until they find a pay and benefits package which best fits their intertests and needs. Providing everyone with the same thing eliminates this competition and will only lead to pay based incentives which will in turn only lead to a greater split between lower, middle and upper as well as within the middle class.

You also conveniently ignored the fact that to pay for said health care taxes need to be raised, which means the in the end it would be lose lose. Sure now you don't have to stay in a job for the health benefits, but now their is no incentive to work a job that provides great health benefits but low pay, as some do, which means these jobs will lose employees rapidly.

Answer 5

Business owners pay social security equal to their employees as it is. If we socialize medicine, they would have to pay equal amounts of that as well. They would be stuck with a bill. Personally I couldn't afford to live if 45% of my paycheck went to the government. Ask a Canadian how much of their paycheck goes to the government. Do you want to pay that much so some slackers can get free health care? The level of health care would drop drastically as well. Doctors would also be paid a lot less. Check the stats, people who graduate from Canadian medical schools are leaving the country by the thousands to make good money in the U.S. No one will become a doctor if they have $250,000 in student loans and only make 40,000 a year for the rest of their lives. Programs like social security and medicare were supposed to be temporary fixes for long term problems. People have begun to rely on them and now we are facing these programs going broke and us hard working tax payers are left holding the bill.

Answer 6

No. Socialism is not good for anyone. Many businesses do not provide insurance for their employees. Socialized medicine will cost those business owners money in the form of higher income taxes.

Many employees do not have health insurance, because they don't want to pay the premiums. Socialized medicine will cost them money in the form of higher taxes.

Answer 7

1) Every liberal proposal for nationalized health care includes the idea of taxing business more
2)Employees can move from job to job, and consider the medical benefits along with all other job benefits, before taking a position...it'll be a factor.

Answer 8

1) true

2) however they would be crippled by the huge tax burden. Then when they wanted health care it would be below the standard we currently have.

Government run health care will destroy our health care system. Government will provide health care as well as the have solved poverty and stopped the use of drugs (both they have been trying to fix for 30+ years). I don't want to wait that long to recieve cancer treatment.

Answer 9

Horrible for freedom though, and your files are Owned by the Government, Never with Hillary in Charge, FBI Files ended up in their hands and her files got lost in the White House or got Shredded

Answer 10

It works so well for other countries many of it's citizens are forced to travel to other counties just to get the care they need.