[identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com 2007-03-05 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
no kidding -- and it's not just the sick employees, it's the ones who are freaked out about getting sick. I mean, forty-six million people with a reasonable fraction of their brains stuck on "OMG what am I going to do about my health care?" have to be less productive than if they didn't have to worry.

Not only that, but single-payer health care:
- simplifies billing enormously for health care providers
- results in significantly less time lost on the part of the patient AND the biller, because there aren't these endless rounds of "I have coverage for that/no you don't/we're going to charge you more/less because you have some coverage/no coverage/a copay/etc. etc."
- is cheaper overall

Of course, the insurance companies hate the very idea of it, because where would all their lovely premiums come from?

/rant

[identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com 2007-03-05 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, and it's a huge competitive advantage for Canadian companies. It also allows employer health plans to offer frills like drug and dental benefits.

[identity profile] archaica.livejournal.com 2007-03-05 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
No one ever bothers to point out that one reason foreign car companies are stomping Ford and GM's asses into the dirt is because their foreign employees are covered under generous national health-care systems, which allows them to sock more cash away or into R&D, and also allows them to pay their American employees well?

[identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com 2007-03-05 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I've heard GM and Ford referred to as "pension companies that happen to turn out a few cars." Same idea...

[identity profile] archaica.livejournal.com 2007-03-05 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh. Yeah, I've heard that one before. It's pretty true, too - the reason they're so swamped is precisely because our government didn't go as far as others did years ago.