Does it seem to you like fewer people than ever before have healthcare coverage through their employers? You are not imagining that trend: Employer-sponsored health insurance is down more than 16% just since 2001.
Two thoughts:
1. That is largely a function of the erosion of workers' rights generally, which has led to an increase in contracted, part-time, freelance, and self-employed work, in combination with the outsourcing of our manufacturing base, replacing those unionized jobs with livable wages and full benefits packages with retail and service jobs which are mostly non-unionized, minimum wage, and without benefits of any kind below management. Allowing US corporations to move their bases of operations offshore so they could increase profits by employing exploitable work forces has made US workers a more exploitable work force.
(Which, of course, is exactly what the dirty hippies predicted would happen when everyone in Washington was getting boners about NAFTA.)
2. This is what it looks like when a nation considers access to healthcare a privilege, instead of a basic human right.
(Gross.)
Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.
blog comments powered by Disqus