Can anyone explain why any business that has employees would be against National Health Care

[Toots]

Two of Business's larger expenses and growing rapidly are Employee health care insurance and Workman's Comp. With single payer National Health Care both of those expenses would go by the wayside. What possible reason could any business not want this to happen? Prices of merchandise would drop and employee pay would rise and business would still be money ahead. What is not to like? :shrug:

[rucky]

1. maybe an insurance business?

:shrug:

[leftofthedial]

2. Because they are idiot supply-side ideologues?

[antigop]

3. Because they may want to keep a "golden" plan for their executives

and

if it's a large corporation, and it is self-insured,how do you know if they are using their employee medical plan or retiree medical plan as a profit center or not?

[Recursion]

4. Losing health insurance is HUGE leverage against employees

If people weren't scared of losing health insurance, they would be less likely to put up with abuses and poor working conditions and more likely to stand up or blow whistles when they see something wrong being done. Being the gatekeepers to health insurance puts employers in a big position of power, and they don't want to lose that.

[madrchsod]

9. ding! ding! we have a winner!

you my friend are dead right. in short, it would boost this country out of its doldrums....

[uberblonde]

11. I think employers also assume it would be too expensive.

They swallow all the right-wing spin and Chamber of Commerce hoo-hah.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. That is the stuff of nightmares. Wage-slavery.

[AZBlue]

17. Wow...you are so right.

I never realized it - and I feel so stupid for saying that since I'd probably have walked about a year ago if it weren't for my benefits.

[KT2000]

18. That is so true

but I never put that together before.
Presently, changing jobs at best would mean a waiting period for the new insurance (if offered) would kick in and then a year wait or more for treatment of any pre-existing conditions.

[angrycarpenter]

5. leverage

Health insurance is one of the things that employers hold over the heads of employees in order to keep them working hard, low paying jobs. How many out there would quit tomorrow if your insurance was provided by the government?

[angrycarpenter]

6. Damn! beat me to it.

[Recursion]

21. Great minds think alike

And apparently mine does too, sometimes

[Selatius]

7. Nobody has explained to them the concept behind single-payer health care.

Also, it's already been labeled socialism, so there is automatically a rejection of the idea for many. America has always been a very individualistic nation, more so than many nations of the industrialized world.

It is apart of America's unique culture, strong individualism. It helps to explain why of all the nations of the industrialized world, the US has no real labor party. You'd think the Labor Party would be in place of the Green Party as a big third party, but it's not, and the strong individualism is why the US has lacked a national health care program compared to other nations in the developed world.

[antigop]

20. Actually, large corporations already have a form of single-payer --- they self-insure n/t

[marlakay]

8. I was thinking the same thing

Businesses could afford to stay here in america, not go out of business, afford pension plans, give pay raises, etc...so why aren't they championing this??

Has to be the fact that right now republican rule favors corporations with lots of tax benefits and other benefits...

I think it would help the small businesses the best because they can't afford health care at all. A lot of people hire part time totally for that reason instead of a few fulltime. It would definitely help small towns too. I live in small town where people are paid from 8-10 per hour and most places don't give health care. If that passed and the owners weren't going broke trying to pay their own medical they could afford to pay employees more.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. Very short-sighted. Even with our NHS in the UK, admittedly somewhat run-down, now,

stress and the ailments it induces, leads to the loss of many man/hours to our economy.

[bluestateguy]

13. We'll only get national health care when we get big business to support it

And that day will come when they realize, as many of them do, that they will save money with national health care, compared to the present system.

To get national health care, we will need powerful allies because we will be taking on powerful people: Big Pharma and the insurance industry. To defeat them, that will require powerful allies.

[RogueBandit]

14. Free Market ideology

I'm on a city council. Many of the other councilers use the "market will determine" as a reason for particular actions, yet they continually vote to subsidize their favorite corporations and projects. I think they are brainwashed daily. They aren't really religious in the sense of church, but they are in the sense of the Chamber and the Country Club.

[Geek_Girl]

15. My guess is they're afraid to loose their tax cuts and corporate welfare to pay for the cost

of Universal Health Care

[MrMickeysMom]

16. I was informed during an employee orientation today that Social Security wouldn't...

... probably be there for "most of us", and therefore, why it was important to think about investing in THEIR retirement (matching only 3% of your underpaid earnings, no less)

I can tell you that it must scare the shit out of self insured mega corporations that employees may not have to county on them. That was the take home message today, anyway. By the way, I complained at the end of this orientation and on their evaluation form. The overseers of it apologized.

In my view, this is part of the great divide where corporations try to tell you how luckey your CEO is to only be making several million compared to all the other richer CEOs. And, how you shouldn't rely on social security. I let them have it (in a professional way, mind you).

[antigop]

19. The Medicare prescription drug bill gave subsidies to companies

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/SB107350927860976500.htm

>>
Some companies with many retired workers are expected to post big earnings gains for 2003 or 2004, thanks to accounting guidelines for subsidies under the federal prescription-drug program.

When Congress approved prescription-drug benefits for Medicare recipients last year, it granted benefits for the 65% of large employers with retiree health-care plans, providing funds for companies that maintained their prescription-drug coverage for retirees.

The program is supposed to encourage employers to retain prescription-drug coverage.

But companies are entitled to the subsidy regardless of how much of the cost they pick up themselves. As a result, it does nothing to halt the current rush by some employers to shift more costs to retirees.

In fact, benefits consultants are designing employer-sponsored prescription plans to save companies more money by unloading costs on their former workers without losing out on the new subsidy.
>>

[antigop]

22. They don't want the boomers to retire. n/t