How important is health care to the average American? We certainly knew it was important, but an article in bizjournals about a recent poll on health care conducted by the Commonwealth Fund drove the point home: It is apparently important enough that “62 percent of Americans would be willing to give back all of the recent federal tax cuts in exchange for universal health insurance coverage.”
And also on the topic of health care coverage or the lack of it, read 10 Myths of the Uninsured, testimony presented to a congressional committee by economist Len Nichols, Ph.D., vice president of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). He pokes holes in many common assumptions about health care, including the idea that American businesses pay $400 billion a year to provide coverage for workers, stating that “Economists believe that ultimately most workers end up paying for health insurance in the form of lower wages.” Thanks to Pulse for pointing us to this article.
George’s Employment Blawg also has a good post on health care issues, including a link to a report entitled Health Care Benefit Crisis: Cost Drivers and Strategic Solutions (note: 30 page pdf file) by Eric Parmenter of Grant Thornton. We will quote George in summarizing it:
Packed with facts and figures, this document begins with a comprehensive, yet concise analysis of sources of increases in health care benefit costs, including: the aging of the baby boomers, costs of new technology, legislative initiatives such as HIPAA, “managed-care saturation,” “direct-to-consumer prescription marketing,” “insurance industry consolidation and profit-taking,” our “litigious society,” poor health care quality, “preventable and avoidable accidents and health problems,” lack of insurance, and “consumer cost insulation.”
Rounding out our reading on the health care crisis, Tom Mayo at HealthLawBlog updates us on recent developments on the issue of drug costs. Tom says: “Who knows? Maybe drug costs will be the leading edge of a health-care reform movement that drags the country, kicking and screaming, into universal coverage (maybe single-payer, but probably not).”
