Why Single Payer Is CRUCIAL for Dems in ’06 / ’08

NY Times: “Fewer Employers Totally Cover Health Premiums,” by Milt Freudenheim, March 23, 2005.

Readers know that we have argued here and on the Medianalysis blog that single-payer MUST be a KEY aspect of any Democratic program …

This is true not only in principle, but also because UNLESS the Democrats have something REAL to offer middle- and working-class voters who are hurting economically in the red states,

they are going to continue to have the shit kicked out of them by Republicans who blather on about “god, life and morality (sic)” issues …

The biggest problem we had with Howard Dean was his FAILURE to articulate a pro-single payer position, which would have been VERY strong coming from a physician …

and, of course, the typically gutless and unimaginative Kerry wouldn’t DREAM of proposing such a “radical” measure ...

But this article – from the front page of the NY Times BUSINESS section – makes ABUNDANTLY clear WHY single-payer is such a winner for the Dems – and also why they will LOSE, and CONTINUE to lose, if they DON’T make single-payer central in 2006 and 2008 …

Selections from this important piece (bold emphasis mine):

As old-line American companies – the last bastions of fully paid employee benefits – struggle in global markets, fewer and fewer of them are able to shoulder 100 percent of workers’ health insurance premiums.

“Employers simply can’t afford the benefits they have promised,” said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, an organization of large employers in Washington. “The auto companies are in the most trouble because they have some of the highest health costs and some of the toughest competition.” …

The percentage of large and medium-size employers paying 100 percent of workers’ individual premiums plummeted to 17 percent in 2004 from 29 percent in 2000, said Michael Carter, a vice president in Philadelphia with the Hay Group, a benefits consulting firm. Even fewer companies paid the full premium for family coverage – 6 percent of employers in 2004 compared with 11 percent in 2000. …

At the same time, most workers who are required to share the premium costs are paying more each year.

The average share of the premium paid by employees in large and medium-size companies is expected to reach $2,800 for family coverage and $800 for individuals this year, according to a survey by the Hay Group. That would be an increase of 27 percent in the family premium from $2,200 in 2003, and a 23 percent rise from $650 in the individual rate.

Even in the relatively few companies where employees pay no premium or deductibles, often called “first dollar” coverage, workers are paying more in co-payments for doctor visits and for drug benefits.

It seems so OBVIOUS that there is a full-blown crisis in health care coverage in this country … and yet the Democrats, as ever, seem OBLIVIOUS to this evident reality … which SHOULD work in their electoral favor …

What IS their problem ???