Health Care For America Now

As the business world braces for the shock of the sliding markets on Wall Street, maybe it's time to take a look at some of the numbers underlying corporations and their bottom lines as it relates to health care.

Brandon & Associates have compiled some facts:

• Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 98 percent between 2000 and 2007. The average firm spends a total of $11,160 annually for a family’s insurance premium, and $4,479 for an individual’s premium.
• Since 2000, corporate health costs have risen to $8,500 per worker – an increase of 87 percent.
• Health care costs consumed approximately 48 percent of net income for the average Fortune 500 company in 1997. By 2005, health care costs and net income were even. Costs are expected to exceed income for many of these companies this year.
• Forty six percent of large businesses capped spending on retiree health benefits in 2006, and only 33 percent offered retiree health benefits at all in 2007.
• With health care costs for small businesses increasing by 129 percent over the last eight years, these types of firms are especially impacted. Only 45 percent of firms with 10 or fewer employees provided health insurance in 2007.

The picture is stark. Health care costs are rising so much that they threaten to exceed income for large companies. Businesses are responding by passing costs onto their employees, meaning less income for families and more people joining the ranks of the uninsured if they can't keep up with rising premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.

And of course, if businesses were simply to drop health care as a benefit, not only would employees be worse off, but they would lose their competitive advantage to companies who could continue to provide health benefits.

The whole situation puts businesses between a rock and a hard place, and leaders are calling out for reform.

Larry Burton, Executive Director, Business Roundtable:

“For Business Roundtable CEOs, health care costs are the number one cost pressure they face. High health care costs are affecting job creation, hurting our ability to compete in global markets, and straining the household incomes of many Americans – forcing them to go without health coverage all together.”

Stephen Burd, CEO, Safeway Incorporated:

“The reason business is getting engaged is that costs are rising and it’s affecting global competitiveness… While we must always be competitive, I’m now advocating, along with union leaders, that we fundamentally change the rules of the game. That will not only drive health-care costs down and get everyone covered, but it will also improve the competitive landscape.”

Carl Camden, CEO, Kelly Services:

“For many companies, reform of health care financing has become a strategic priority, and perhaps that’s not surprising since for many of us the cost of health care exceeds the amount of profit we generate during the course of the year.”

Mike Critelli, CEO of Pitney Bowes:

“Clearly affordable coverage that is universal and prevents catastrophic costs from hitting American citizens is a prerequisite for any health system.”

Ben Bernanke, Chairman, Federal Reserve:

“Improving the performance of our health care system is without a doubt one of the most important challenges our nation faces… The decisions we make about health-care reform will affect many aspects of our economy, including the pace of economic growth, wages and living standards, and government budgets, to name a few.”

While we still face economic turmoil in the stock markets, fixing health care so risk was shared fairly, everyone could afford it, and coverage was guaranteed would go a long way towards shoring up the balance sheets of our businesses, reinforcing the foundation of our economy.

The Shock Doctrine can work both ways. During times of crisis, we can force through greater "free market" reforms that simple redistribute wealth to the rich, or we can seize the opportunity to put through sensible regulation of insurance practices. Business leaders are wise to realize the gravity of the health care crisis. Let's go implement the solution - quality, affordable health care for all.