Econintersect: Columnist Rick Ungar at Forbes has an article that attacks the question of healthcare costs having a negative effect on businesses. He 
suggests that businesses freed from the burden of providing healthcare as part of compensation would become lean, mean growing machines. Ungar’s thesis is that single payer is the way to go to make this needed change, but he proposes that there be 50 single payers. He says that the provision for healthcare should be accomplished at the state level. The title of his article is “A Dose of Socialism Could Save Our States – State Sponsored, Single Payer Healthcare Would Bring In Business & Jobs.”
One of the sources that Ungar quotes states:
For example, the new president of Health Care for All Pennsylvania is a Republican business owner named David Steil. He commented, “My commitment to a single-payer health care system has its roots in my 35 years of experience at the senior management level in several manufacturing companies. We must solve the health care dilemma if our businesses are going to compete in the international marketplace.”
Ungar also says that the Republican attorney general of Louisiana is against Obamacare specifically because it does not implement a single payer system.
The Forbes article includes the following graphic from 2009:
Finally, Ungar says that business is best benefited (and employees as well) if the single payer healthcare system is funded by progressive income taxes rather than regressive payroll taxes.
Sources:
- A Dose of Socialism Could Save Our States – State Sponsored Single payer Healthcare Would Bring in Business & Jobs (Rick Ungar, Forbes, 6 April 2012)
- Health Costs, Gov’t Regulations Curb Small Business Hiring (Dennis Jacob, Gallup Economy, 15 February 2012)
Hat tip to Naked Capitalism.
