CMA Health Policy Blog

Medicare and Jobs: Not Mutually Exclusive!

September 13, 2011 at 4:14 pm Judith Stein Leave a comment

The more people have health insurance, including  Medicare, the more they stay healthy and are able to work.  If health insurance is provided by Medicare or health care reform or any avenue outside the tired employer-based system, it reduces costs for employers and encourages hiring.  Ask any employer.

Continuing to tie health insurance to employment only continues a system that COSTS jobs. It creates a disincentive for employers to hire.  It creates an incentive for the new employment reality:  Freelance, contract work, part-time, whatever you want to call the newly underemployed who do not have benefits and for whom employers do not pay into Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment, or Workers Comp.  This is a big problem for everyone involved, including individual workers, their families, AND the solvency of important programs that Americans value and that have lifted generations out of poverty and provided fair access to health care. 

Pay attention, people!  We not only can have Medicare and jobs – we will have more jobs if we  increase access to Medicare and health care.  Don’t raid Medicare to pay for jobs.  That will only reduce access to both.

Entry filed under: Access to Health Care, Employment, Health Care, Health Care Reform Repeal, Health Insurance, Jobs, Medicare, Single Payer, Uncategorized, Vouchers. Tags: Deficit; Medicare, Health Care Reform, Medicare, voucher.