The Affordability Crisis in U.S. Health Care
(From the slide presentation of Gerald Shea, Assistant to the President for
Governmental Affairs, AFL-CIO)
Bill Dreher, Deutsche Bank Securities:
“From the perspective of investors, Costco’s benefits ($10/hour starting wage, 90% paid health benefits after 3 months for full-timers, after 6 months for part-time) are overly generous. Public companies need to care for shareholders first. Costco runs its business like it is a private company.” (Wall Street Journal, 3/26/04)
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_affordability_723.asp
Comment: The Wall Street solution of eliminating employer generosity may be good for business, but it fails to address the problem of ensuring employee access to affordable health care.
A universal, publicly funded and publicly administered health insurance
program would ensure that access while relieving business administrators of this clear conflict of interest, allowing them to more appropriately concentrate their efforts on maximizing profits.