Universal Health Care and Me
April 7, 2009
A few years ago, I contemplated leaving my company and sent out my resume. I went on several interviews and even had a few offers but I learned something that I may not have been aware of before. Most of the companies that I interviewed with either had no health care or inadequate health care. I am lucky enough to have a good job, that offers great benefits but with the economy sinking, I wonder if that will last. Recently my company has frozen annual increases, dropped our 401 K match from 4 % to 2% and is now only offering tuition assistance up to $2,500 per year for each employee. I am waiting for another email that starts with “Due to these hard economic times, we have made the difficult decision….” letting us now that they will be decreasing our health benefits.
What would I do then? My husband owns a small, (and struggling) business, so all health benefits come from me. I couldn’t even imagine trying to receive benefits even close to what I have now on my own. It would be financially devastating.
A new CBS poll says that a majority of American’s would pay more taxes in order to get Universal health care. The soaring health care costs are growing several times faster than inflation and companies can no longer handle the burden. Smaller companies aren’t even bothering to offer them. The United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care. Yet despite all this extra money we spend on health care services the United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for woman, 21st in life expectancy for men, 23td in infant mortality, and we rank between 50 and 100 in immunizations!
If the majority of Americans say they want health care and are willing to put in the tax dollars then I think our congressional representatives should be listening and doing what the people want.
Also if anything I say didn’t convince you, this is interesting reading:
The Long Morrow 