Saturday, August 31, 2013

Sharing the burden

Recently UPS was criticized for dropping employee health insurance coverage for spouses who are eligible for health insurance through their employers. But that's only 15,000 people. The majority of their drivers and other employees are covered through Teamster's Union benefits so they will not be affected by the change.

A recent article called Employers Play Obamacare Blame Game discusses reactions to the shared costs complaints and how other companies are reacting to the upcoming changes.

The whole point of mandatory health care is to have a healthier population. This requires change. So of course employers are going to start shifting burdens around as much as they can. Companies which have provided the most benefits I am sure will be some of the first to start making changes.

There is a separate requirement, starting in 2018, where employees who offer richer policies will be required to start shifting more of the costs to employees or start paying a penalty.

People are dying or going bankrupt due to lack of medical care or the high costs associated with it. We need to share the burden and can't assume our employers or the government will hand us everything we need. Its part of taking our place in society and being a contributing human being.

There are those, including me, who face health or other issues, who can't contribute as much as others. But that doesn't make them any less of human beings.
If you do not like the current and upcoming changes for whatever reason, then you can do your part by cooperating with the existing legislation and work to find ways to change it.

What this is all called is change. Get over it. Change is needed to make health insurance more affordable and health care more available. Our current system does not work. Insurance companies, not doctors, are making decisions about the health of people.

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