Medicare For All Good For All

Last week’s column discussed the advantages of Medicare for All from the point of view of any individual, everyone would be covered with the same benefits regardless of what size business they work for and even if that employer shuts down or lays off workers. This week let’s review the advantages of Medicare for All to businesses and the entire economy.

Did you know that General Motors spends more per car on health insurance than it does on the steel in the car? Not so for Japanese and Korean car makers since the employer doesn’t provide health insurance, it comes from their respective federal governments via Medicare for All type programs. That saves them a couple of thousand dollars right off the top.

When unions, even those few in Texas, negotiate with employers the issue they all have in common is health insurance and it is often the issue that is hardest to resolve. Just a few years ago the City of San Antonio was in a protracted and fraught contract fight with the Firefighters Union and the biggest issue was health insurance.

When a young couple with a child or two is considering whether or not to strike out on their own and start a business one of the biggest stumbling blocks is health insurance and maintaining it in the face of both a slow start for the business and the potential failure of it. What modestly successful person is willing to risk the health and lives of their family when also taking the big financial risk of starting their own business? No other developed country so dampens the entrepreneurial spirit as does the United States.

As the prices of drugs and medical care in general continue to soar upward every employer that offers health insurance does their best to minimize the cost while providing the level of coverage necessary to retain their employees. One of the ways to do that for employers large enough to handle it is to become the insurer themselves. Schertz/Cibolo/Universal City ISD did this a few years ago and it has proven successful at restraining cost growth such that while the district isn’t paying any less than before the teachers and staff aren’t paying any more in premiums, deductibles, and co-pays than they were a couple of years ago. Compared to what all parties would be paying if SCUC ISD still used a third party insurance company they’ve generated real savings by cutting out the middleman.

SCUC ISD contracts out for administration of their health plan, that’s the part that involves paying claims by health care providers. It also pays a premium to a re-insurance company in case of a bad health year or several employees contracting catastrophic illnesses like cancer, yet it is still a government agency providing health insurance on its own. That’s a small step, taken by many others, toward government health insurance that shows it is viable here in the United States.

There is plenty of evidence that shows that children, aka future employees, who receive adequate health care from conception to adulthood grow up to be both healthier and more productive workers. The Medicare for All plans proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren address of the issues I’ve written about this week and last. There are no disadvantages to Medicare for All unless you think that wealthy people automatically deserve good health care and poor kids don’t.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 11, 2019