[tobyhill]

You ever heard of benefit packages?

That's how we get the best employees we can find.

The system was working just fine before Obama came along and I'm not talking Medicare or Medicaid.

[Bluebird Singing]

Have you ever wondered how these “benefit” packages came to be in the first place?

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1689.html

The Emergency Stabilization Act was passed in October 1942, which placed wages and agricultural prices under control. There were immediate wage restrictions, and in order to attract labor, the employers offered a range of such fringe benefits as pensions, medical insurance, paid holidays, and vacations. Because the foregoing were not paid out in cash, they did not violate the wage ceiling. Controlling output proved easier than controlling wages.

[Mister Da]

As a long time employee & contractor, I can tell you that money talks & everything else walks. Benes are here today, & gone tomorrow, especially for lower level employees. And having money deducted from your paycheck sure doesn't seem like a benefit. The really sharp people you want to hire: They already know this! They aren't buying the "free undercoating" scam.

Health insurance premiums have risen every year since I can remember - 30+ years. This particular benefit has been a burden for employers/employees long before Obama.

I have personally heard both employers & employees curse the system. I have seen hundreds of employees suddenly laid off, & left with expensive choices to continue to insure their family. I have seen people who work for the spawn of Satan, but cannot leave their job in Hell because of an ongoing illness of a covered dependent.

This is the system you would perpetuate for some nebulous inducement to new hires? A system that is crumbling from inefficiency & inequity.

In the current consumer-unfriendly system, where privately acquired health insurance is very expensive, the employer has a real (& unfair) advantage over employees. But if widely available, market priced insurance were available to individuals & families, I believe businesses would quickly abandon employer provided insurance.