Medicare for All reins in national health care spending and guarantees health care as a right to all Americans. It eliminates health insurance premiums, deductibles and coinsurance, ensuring everyone access to care. But, did you know that Medicare for All also benefits business and the economy?
Joe Sanberg, an entrepreneur and investor, explains in The Nation that Medicare for All will create more jobs and deliver higher wages for workers. It will also help businesses compete globally. Today most US companies are in the health care business in addition to their primary business, even if they don’t want to be. All in, they spend $880 billion a year on worker health benefits.
Each worker today poses large and unpredictable costs for a company. These costs keep businesses from hiring new workers. If businesses did not have to devote time and resources to health care benefits, they could hire more people.
Moreover, businesses struggle to compete globally because of the extraordinary cost of the health care coverage they provide their workers. Businesses in other wealthy countries do not have to spend time and money on their workers’ health care. The cost of healthcare is paid for through their countries’ tax system.
Employer coverage in the US also hurts workers. Because health care costs have risen so quickly in the last 30 years, workers have not seen significant wage increases. Health care costs are up 75 percent in the last 10 years. But, the median annual salary for a worker in the US is up only 25 percent. With Medicare for All, employers would save money on health care costs and employees should see gains in their wages.
Yes, businesses and workers would pay higher federal taxes, but these taxes would go towards fully-covered health care for their workers. Ninety-five percent of the time, the taxes would be less than what they pay today to commercial insurers for partial health care coverage.
Workers also would have significantly more freedom. They would not be trapped in their jobs in order to have health care coverage. They would no longer have to worry about losing their jobs and losing their health care coverage. Americans would have health security throughout their lives.
Medicare for All also would spawn entrepreneurship. Individuals would not have to worry about going without health care coverage if they took the risk of starting a business that did not ultimately succeed. Today, many Americans feel obligated to work for businesses that deliver them health care benefits.
Medicare for All makes sense. That’s why the vast majority of Americans support it. Members of Congress should take note and do right by Americans.
If you support Medicare for all, please sign this petition.
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