Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
You're thinking about it the wrong way. Companies aren't going to drop health coverage overnight. They will (and indeed many already do) slowly lower the amount of premium they're paying into the plan, and choose less costly (and less comprehensive) health plans.
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That's just a cost issue and will happen independently of any government plan. Health coverage (just like salary, bonus, upward mobility, hours flexibility) is simply a way to entice people to come work for you. If people start dropping or significantly reducing coverage, they will get worse people.
This isn't the 1930s mob where Microsoft, Walmart, IBM, Ford, McDonalds and Pepsi are all going to sit in a back room and conspire to all drop health coverage together. The first company to significantly reduce (and/or drop) coverage will be:
A. Plastered all over 60 minutes/media
B. Face a mass exodus on all their talented skilled labor/workforce
Given it would take around 400-500 companies to take the risk for A and B and I think that's not very likely anytime soon. Much more likely would be some "government sponsored" safety net plan to help offset the costs of cancer/life-saving drugs/catastrophic issues and thereby cut down the cost for businesses. But, I think it's a bit "boogeymanish" to think that we're going to have a bunch of businesses raising copays/premiums to huge amounts after either plan is enacted. When you take into account how neutered either plan would need to be to get through congress, chances are it will only impact self-employee/uninsured at this point (which isn't a bad thing).