disconnect healthcare from employment

For whatever reason, there is some cultural resistance to disconnecting health care from employment. The LA Times reports that Obama may finally sever the link between the availability of health care and employment status - and thank goodness: it will let people like my dad retire and empower somebody like me to make an employment decision (eg hanging my shingle or venturing with another attorney) without fearing i could get seriously sick or hurt without coverage.

Nevertheless, the Times indicates that team Obama is not prepared to sever the link completely. Too bad. Remember the link I posted yesterday about GM workers earning close to $80.00 per hour after benefits? That same article explained that a GM worker makes pretty much the same wage as a non-union Honda or Toyota worker. The difference is health care, retirement, etc.

So if you want to bail out the auto industry, why not take health care off its shoulders? We tend to treat health care as a commodity in this country - and in some respects it ought to be. But there is also a human right aspect to health card - and health care is a vital component of any nations economic infrastructure.

Severing health care from employment will enhance our economic competitiveness by leveling the playing field between u.s employers and employers in nations where access to health care is completely detached from employment. Severing health care from employment will enable small businesses to more effectively compete with larger entities for the best talent. Severing health care from employment will remove a barrier to entrepreneurship.

In fact, severing health care from employment forwards almost all the objectives conservative pay lip service to - but never support in practice.