An article in the Lancaster Sunday News entitled “Trend raises concerns about full-time work with benefits” reports:
“Between 2009 and 2013, the number of temporary jobs available in Lancaster County grew by 50 percent. That’s four times the national average, and large enough to rank Lancaster ninth among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the nation for its share of temporary jobs.”
“… research, published by labor market data company Economic Modeling Specialists International, shows few of these low-paying temporary positions are turning into full-time employment offers with benefits.”
This is an outgrowth of the wage freeze imposed to fight inflation during the Second World War. Employers were able to attract workers by offering health care. Thus was the birth of the United States’ aberrant health care system.
We expect employers to provide health care benefits; most other nations fund through Value Added Taxes or in other ways and have a single payer system instead of health care insurers.
By removing health care costs from business expenses, American goods and services would become less expensive and thus more competitive in world wide trade. This in itself would lead to higher employment.
The cost and confusion of administering a system which is dependent on private health insurers adds about $3 per hour to the cost of wages.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25. President Barack Obama has called for an increase to $9 an hour. The added cost for an employee even earning $10 an hour amounts to 30%. (Economic models have established that the employer ultimately bears the burden of health care costs even when the employee pays a share.)
Hotels, super markets, landscape contractors and other emplooyers of low skill workers make it a point to avoid engaging full time employees. Most such firms are actively replacing full time employees with part time workers. Hence the jump in the latter category.
When he came into office, President Barack Obama was convinced that a radical conversion of health care to a variation of “Medicare for everyone” was political unachievable. But he thought he had assurances from the health insurance industry of cooperation for many reforms of the current approach as part of the Affordable Health Care Act. Instead, they turned against him. So not only did we not get the needed total reform, but we got a diluted version of trying to improve the current system.
Our faulty health care system is the “Achilles’ heal” of our nation. The 18% of Gross National Product we devote to health care is at least 7% more than any other advanced nation. The astronimically high cost is depriving the country of investment capital. Thus we are living largely off past infrastructure and investments and continue to decline. We have just gotten use to it. Go to Canada, Asia or even Mexico and see what growth looks like.
There are as many who criticize “Obama Care” for not being a total reform as those who feel it goes too far.
The overall quality of health care in the USA is rated around 15th in the world, alongside Cuba.
A big plus is it will provide health insurance for more than 30 million without current coverage. Time will tell whether it will actually reduce costs and improve health care.
