There was not and is not (at least before Obamacare) a law that requires employers to provide healthcare. It actually began as a matter of taxes and the employers figuring out a way around them as a means to induce employees to hire on. Just because you have a hard on against employers, HMOs, PPOs, or otherwise does not make them the bad guy. These were all responses to rising costs and the intrusion of government, and lawyers. Frankly, I don't give a crap about black lung, mesothelioma, or any of the lawyer enriching afflictions you decry. I don't give a crap about Warren Buffet, that dead bastard Kennedy or any of them that have vested financial or ideological interests. I only know you are paid (and benefited) what you are worth, and no amount of floor sweeping, wrench turning, French fry bagging or burger selling is gonna make you worth any more than that. Government, employers, capitalism doesn't owe you sh!t except to compensate you for what you are worth. If you want better for everybody, you could go to England and try and fight off the Muslims.
You clearly have a problem understanding the written word and miss the points of my posting entirely. My mentioning of the various “afflictions” were statements of fact for the workers, and a point of causality.
Sorry you are upset and angry. While your comments about a workers worth and obligation would be true in a truly free labor market— they are wholly incorrect in the current world. I was pointing out how we got here. The obamaumaocare debacle is the near pinnacle of decades of Fabian socialism. The reference I made to black lung... was to point out just how the corporate types have done this in the past, getting the govt. involved to intervene and then no longer having the responsibility or liability. It is an absolute parallel of how we got here to obamaumaocare.
The labor laws of this country and Democrat New Deal union politics of the Progressives proceeded to make providing healthcare as a “tax-deductible” benefit by employers, and for those employers of a certain size, politically it became codified, and the morass of labor laws have enjoined it into “law from the bench” in day to day operations. To the point where the jackasses of the demo and rino world have declared healthcare a “right”— it isn’t.
Employers could deduct the cost of providing benefits (through their lobbying efforts and sold to employees as a form of “pay”- which it was not since they are totally deductible) from corporate taxes. They manipulated the legislation to their tax advantage for this “politically correct” benefit. Their culpability in this march away from a free market is undeniable. The active players also in this were the Unions and their pals in the Demo party, in particular Teddy Kennedy, pressuring corporate America to provide ever higher benefits (again, as “rights”) to which corporate America responded with again more tax breaks to try to offset this idiotic escalation of “rights” from the laborites.
So a progression of alphabet soup agencies and laws and entities, providing full employment for corporate and labor and govt. lawyers ensued: ERISA, HIPPAA, HMOs, PPOs...all eating out of the trough that the taxpayers fill. The largest firms self-insure and contract out to meet the federal commitment. But all of this has cost our society greatly. For example, physician practices have had to hire people just to handle the 3rd party payment system so created.
In short, corporations greased the pols (dems and rinos alike) to allow the cost shift to continue through the tax code, and the Unions pushed and greased the pols from their end for their “rights”.
The end goal of the socialists is and has been govt. single payer and govt. control of all of us, save the elite— the US Euro Union. The large corporations have incorporated these “goals” into their business plans, made govt. their “partner” and are globally socialist organizations of elitists.
The post was to point out this march of Fabian socialism and Progressivism. The only way out of this is to sever from both the global corporatists AND the federal govt. mobsters. They are one and the same. Just say no— defund, defeat and do NOT replace. Let insurance be sold across all state lines—market rates. Don’t provide care for uninsured, period. True pay to play.
The cultural key to this entire mess is the frank elitism of the anglophilic Establishment that thinks copying the UK is the way to go. NHS in UK is an utter failure, the country corrupt and racing to the pot of money from petroleum muslims for their salvation— to the point of installing Shariah law as OK in the Church of England.
Apparently our New England elite thinks they ARE royalty and king obongo their houseboy on a string. But they are all, all of them socialists. They are the same people the South tried to separate from many years ago.