Health Insurance Reform is Good for Business
According to the article “Fixing Health Care Is Good for Business” by Gary Locke on the Wall Street Journal’s website, without health insurance reform the price of an average household’s health insurance will almost double over the next 10 years from $13,000 to $25,000.
This is why health care reform is so crucial. 47 million Americans are currently without health insurance and the rising health insurance costs are severely affecting American companies as well. In 1960, companies spent about 1.2% of payroll on health insurance and by 2006 it was up to 9.9%. This rate is unsustainable for companies and has to change because it is crushing US jobs.
The Rand Corporation released a study which showed that excess health insurance costs were contributing to significant job losses. Escalating costs are also causing flat wages and higher prices on products and services because money is going towards health care costs which have doubled over the last 9 years. Health insurance reform appears to be around the corner so let’s hope some of these staggering statistics can be turned around.
