Hidden health care costs?

Kevin Drum wants universal health care for more than simply economic reasons:

I certainly know of people who are basically stuck in their jobs forever because they have an expensive, chronic condition that wouldn't be covered during their first year at a new job. Policies vary, but it's not uncommon for pre-existing conditions to get limited (or no) coverage during an initial period under a new group health plan. As for taking a year off to go to school, or leaving to start a new business, you can just forget it if you have a chronic condition that's too expensive to risk losing coverage for.

It's this, by the way, not cost, that I think is the strongest argument for national healthcare.

I'm with Kevin here, but I don't know if these are two entirely separate issues. It seems to me that this phenomenon (people stuck unhappy and unambitiously in jobs they only keep for the health care) is part of a category of hidden health care costs. They act essentially like invisible taxes that can only be eliminated by forcing people into less-lucrative life positions in order to keep their health care

American health care is famously (well, not famously enough) more expensive, less comprehensive, and less effective than health care in all those other countries, and, as Kevin points out, if America made a complete switch to a French-style system without cutting salaries for doctors and nurses, it might be a financial wash. But there are at least a handful of secondary--perhaps effects that can't be disaggregated from greater economic trends--that would actually make such a system worth it on both humane and economic terms.

Comments

[25 hour Mike]

Another economic distortion is the pressure on employers to hire 2 part part-time employees instead of one full-time employee because they can't afford to pay for the health insurance for someone who works over 30 hours/week at their company. This is true even if the hourly rates are the same and the two part-timers work a few more hours.

[25 hour Mike]

Another economic distortion is the pressure on employers to hire 2 part part-time employees instead of one full-time employee because they can't afford to pay for the health insurance for someone who works over 30 hours/week at their company. This is true even if the hourly rates are the same and the two part-timers work a few more hours.

[Morris Young]

If a man comes to your front door and says he is conducting a survey And asks you to show him your bum, do not show him your bum. This is a scam. He only wants to see your bum. I wish I had got this yesterday. I feel so stupid and cheap. -The Bum http://www.widgetmate.com