Today’s New York Times reported on the problems small businesses have in securing healthcare insurance for their employees. This is a huge problem since “Of the 47 million uninsured people in this country, at least 20 million are employed by small businesses or work for themselves — a figure that has increased by an average of more than 500,000 a year since 2000.”
Small businesses pay about 18% more than do major firms for the same type of coverage. They face wild jumps in rates when they replace a younger worker with an older worker or a male with a female. In some cases, workers must also qualify, that is prove that they are in good health; something older workers have a harder time doing.
The abuses in the healthcare system are many. They will continue as long as we allow the healthcare providers the freedom to do whatever they will. Last year, even as the CEO of Anthem Blue Cross received $42 million in bonuses, in an act called rescission, they have been systematically dropping individuals’ healthcare policy after they seek service for major illnesses and refusing to pay valid hospital claims. You can imagine most of those affected are in their middle or older years. (Recently, 480 California hospitals banded together and successfully sued Blue Cross).
The fact that these types of abuses are a part of our healthcare system is an indictment against our society. Does the right of these firms to exploit us trump the rights of the people to have reasonable healthcare? With more of the population working for small companies, this issue deserves serious attention, since an unhealthy society cannot compete in this globalized world.
