choclosteve

Employer provided health care in the US is 100% voluntary- no legal mandate, and is declining. Very few Walmart Employees have company paid for health care. Most of those without health insurance are employed. Many are self employed or contract workers. Health insurance for those who have it, have increasingly large deductibles or co-pays, often as high as $500 or $1,000 or more. The working middle class are getting screwed The very poor get government paid for medicaid, the old get medicare, and those in the military get free medical, as do retired military. Veterans can also go to VA facilities, but they are underfunded, with long waiting lists. If you have a job that provides good health care benefits, you better keep it. Fewer of them are around, and the future will have fewer still that provide health care. Used to be that most houses were Carpenter


Union built, and the Union had and still has a good health plan, but the union mostly does large commercial projects, and a decreasing % of them. Nowadays, almost no houses are built by union carpenters. They are mostly built by carpenters without any health insurance- hard working folk, with skills and tools. I'm a semi retired carpenter. Love the work, especially being self employed, but I went a lot without health insurance and held my breath and stayed competitive and was lucky and made it to medicare without being bankrupted by some bad health problem, and payed my child support instead of buying health insurance. I think I made the right choices, in doing work I liked, and paying my bills, but then, I have been lucky. Could not have payed my child support either, if I had had the bad luck to have a costly medical problem while self employed. A lot of good hard working folk here holding their breath so that they can compete and give the rest of US a fair deal on their home repairs and construction. Hey, I've made it to medicare, but what about those who are younger and would like to build houses? Universal single payer health care is something the rest of the rich nations have, and it costs them less.