Posted on 05/26/2009 9:17:17 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
Countless workers in the United States are trapped in jobs they would like to leave because they cannot get health insurance elsewhere, calcifying innovation and mobility in the world's largest economy.
Daunted by health-care costs, a would-be technology entrepreneur in Texas decides not to start her own business. A communications expert in Washington decides not to strike out on his own. And a freelance magazine editor in Brooklyn decides to take a less satisfying corporate job.
"I would rather be freelancing, no question," said Jessica Tolliver, a former editor who now works in public relations. "I got my work done in less time, because once I finished what I had to do, the time was my own."
Economists call this phenomenon "job lock," and studies suggest that it keeps between 20 percent and 50 percent of workers from leaving their current jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
And more small businesses could succeed and bring even more jobs!
Been there, know exactly how you feel.
You will never find a job looking through want ads, sending out resumes, and applying online. Go that route and you will out of work for months (perhaps years.)
"What Color Is Your Parachute" the best job hunting guide out there. It will teach you how to network your way into a job (the ONLY route that works at your age.)
Good luck.
Errr... my comment was in reference to the FACT that the USA leads in entrepreneurship prior to free health care.
You're right. Who's idea was it anyway to have employers be health insurance providers? Oh yea, that other paragon of social engineering failures, FDR.
The next most important thing is to allow free competition between insurers across state lines. Get the (STATE)governments out of the gatekeeping business (this is true for other businesses and professions as well).
Let’s try the free market option first to see if it works ... we haven’t tried that yet.
Well said.
It’s not optional in Hawaii (and some other states). Businesses much provide 100% of the cost of health care for employees over 20 hours per week.
It’s also not ‘optional’ for the business owner ... if he/she wants to have health insurance for themselves and their family ... which most do. Try getting a policy as a self-employed person and see how much it costs.
“GE is merely replacing Enron as the ‘RAT’s main vehicle for obtaining campaign dollars in exchange for legislation favorable to their business interests which are against the best interests of the American people”
I have some real questions about GE Capital’s behavior as regards some retailers that were their clients. The way they acted toward the retailers sure looked more like GE trying to deliberately cause their failure, than being a business partner.The timing of when GE cut back their credit lines (even though the payments were all on time and so forth) seemed timed to deliberately inflict damage or failure on those businesses. I would be EXTREMELY leery of selling out my business’ soul to GE capital at this time.
Millions more would like to leave their jobs, but for the fact that they like to get paychecks. Others would like to leave theirs, but the commute is manageable. Still others seem to enjoy their time off benefits, accrued after working there for years. But 0bama can probably make this all work out so no one has to work at some less-than-ideal job. All we need to do is hope for change.
I have, but, frankly, it is much cheaper to me to pay only for my own insurance rather than for 10 other families. $10K out of my pocket for private insurance versus $50-60K per year for group insurance to cover my employees, which if I didn't pay would come to me each year.
I do pay for my employees insurance right now, but it is not mandatory here, so right now I choose to. When times are tougher, we negotiate how we split the costs with employees. A government mandate would take that flexibility away, limiting my ability to hire and keep people in the future.
Pools should be established where individuals can buy their own insurance, and employers are out of this whole mess. Also, there should be an option for only hospitalization/major medical issues (cancer, surgeries, etc.), rather than coverage for every check-up, routine office visit. People would have far lower insurance costs in exchange for paying $80-$100 per office visit. Doctors could keep costs lower by not having so much insurance paperwork every time they see your kid for strep throat.
Insurance wise, this is a minor fix. Florida and many other states already allow “guarantee issue” policies for those who can document (with tax docs.) full time self employment.
I don’t believe that the insurance market in FL (or other states) blew up after this adjustment.
In CA, you need to show at least 2 “employees”, drawing an income that can be documented clearly in tax docs. However, the documentation requirements are nearly absurd.
A minor change to the law could fix this, but our legislature seems to prefer a broken system that can be replaced by an elaborate, government regulated model or single payor.
I am not a big fan of allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. The insurance industry is regulated on a state level in the U.S. — as it should be under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Even if there were some cost savings associated with interstate insurance sales, something to keep in mind is that your cheapest insurance policies can typically be found in states where many insurance companies are financially stable enough to deal with large numbers of claims. Some states where insurance coverage is very expensive also have a reputation for having the most stringent financial requirements for insurance companies (New York is a good example of this).
". . . your cheapest insurance policies can typically be found in states where many insurance companies are NOT financially stable enough to deal with large numbers of claims."
LOL!
This from the folks who just trashed millions of American jobs?
Okay, maybe going across state lines isn’t the answer.
But the free market would be far better than anything the government has to offer.
They won’t stand for the empowerment of the people in a free market.
Yep, through wage controls, companies used health insurance as a way to get around it. That darned Law of Unintended Consequences, ain't it a bitch.
Actually it was Richard Nixon (Republican) who pressed Congress to tie health care to employment by giving tax breaks to companies which offered health insurance to their employees.
Nixon should have been impeached for that, instead of Watergate.
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