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Employers ditching health coverage (thelemmy.club)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 18 hours ago (7 children)

Push everyone onto the private market and jack the prices up with worse service. Just like everything else.

Because even though the employer health care was shitty for a lot of reasons it did have one thing going for it: the ability of a powerful corporation to negotiate the best rates it could in order to keep its costs down.

If it’s no longer tied to jobs, we lose that last advantage.

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  • [–] 7 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

    If the market worked, sure. Eventually it became a selling point that looks acceptable to job applicants, but is practically useless when needed. Tons of market failures because of all the monopolies.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago (2 children)

    I’m not arguing in favor of employer health care. I’m only pointing out the single benefit it offered vs health care being run like Netflix or any other subscription service that enshittifies further and charges you more every chance it gets.

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  • [–] 2 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    But in reality we don't get that collective bargaining benefit at all because the employer doesn't represent our interests. They're getting the entire surplus.

    Imagine a corrupt union, that bargains on your behalf but takes nearly all the surplus. Your employer is even worse than that.

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  • [–] 1 point 17 hours ago (2 children)

    There was another reason: Employer-provided health insurance is not taxed as income in the US. This is the main reason healthcare is tied to employment.

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  • [–] 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

    I know of no place that cites the taxes as a “benefit” or a main reason.

    Health care was tied to employment as a means to attract workers. That’s it. The fact any of it is untaxed is at the whim of the government, not the employer. If anything the employer-based health care is a shackle, you lose your job or get fired you lose insurance.

    I’m sure if enough people get kicked off employer health care or enough corpos say they’re no longer offering it the government will allow some sort of pre-tax or no-tax income allowance to individuals based on reported health insurance costs.

    Maybe.

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