With health care and health insurance costs skyrocketing, the demand that businesses provide health insurance for employees is becoming impossible for small businesses, and harder than ever for the giants. Even the major automobile manufacturers are struggling to survive, weighed down largely by generous health plans for both current employees and retired workers.
Now may be the perfect time for some brilliant congressman or -woman to come up with an efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective plan for universal health care coverage. Two-thirds of the country's citizens are already covered by the government, through Medicare, Medicaid, the Veteran's Administration, and other programs; why not identify what works best in each of these agencies and build on them to provide a single payer system that works for everyone?
With a universal health care system in place, small businesses may find that they can compete with larger corporations for top employees, while big businesses can put more of their money into expansion and increased productivity. Employees can reap the benefits in both increased pay and in more choice; in short, they can vote with their feet in terms of employment without the possible loss of health care benefits hanging over their heads.
Businesses have been resisting universal health care coverage for decades; but now, with globalization threatening their ability to hire locally and high health care costs depleting their capital, they may just decide that the time to support universal health care coverage has come.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics.