Sick Workers Left Behind
Posted by Mike Gehrke on July 7, 2008 at 12:02 PM
McCain’s fend-for-yourself approach to healthcare leaves older, sicker workers behind:
To the degree that happens, the employer-based market will become less healthy as sicker, older workers stay with their employer-based coverage while more of the healthier workers move to the individual market."What you'll see happening is average cost in the employer-market will go up and average cost in the individual market will go down," Fronstin said. "You'll start to get into a cycle where people at the margin start to leave employer coverage for individual coverage. At some point, employers will start to ask: Why am I doing this if my workers don't value it anymore? If I don't need to do this to be competitive in the labor market, why should I do it?"
And he'd do little to ease Americans’ healthcare pains:
Why should insurers work to lower prices or health care use when they can shun high-cost people in the first place? And what incentive do insurers have to invest now in promoting better health and improving the system when others will benefit later?
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