Where is the Outrage over Employer-Sponsored Coverage in the “Rate Shock” Debate?

Where is the Outrage over Employer-Sponsored Coverage in the “Rate Shock” Debate?

McIntyre by way of Thoma:

Some 90% of people with private insurance receive it through an employer, and those plans are generally priced using “pure” experience-rating. This means the company serves as one giant risk pool, and a firm’s youngest employees have the exact same insurance premium as their eldest colleagues.

…

Yet, I’ve seen exactly zero Obamacare opponents railing to amend the employer-based practices that require most young healthies to pay more than their “fair share.” No one is plying Congress to amend HIPAA or the ADA so young invincibles can pay premiums appropriate to their health status. No one is calling out employers on their “redistributionist” policies, even though uniform insurance premiums force a substantial transfer from the young to the old.

If you’re expecting honest debate from the people who came up with death panels and takeover messaging, you are asking too much.

How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much

How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour.

…

“the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”

The right shift of the past 30 years has been far more focused with punishing the poor than actually promoting economic growth. 

A War on the Poor

A War on the Poor

I still sometimes see pundits claiming that the Tea Party movement is basically driven by concerns about budget deficits. That’s delusional. Read the founding rant by Rick Santelli of CNBC: There’s nary a mention of deficits. Instead, it’s a tirade against the possibility that the government might help “losers” avoid foreclosure. Or read transcripts from Rush Limbaugh or other right-wing talk radio hosts. There’s not much about fiscal responsibility, but there’s a lot about how the government is rewarding the lazy and undeserving.

The tea party merges the prosperity gospels with Ayn Rand and walks away with a belief that economics is nothing more than a morality play where the wealthy are wealthy because of virtue and the poor are poor because of vice. 

House Republicans Skip Obamacare Briefing They Furiously Demanded

House Republicans Skip Obamacare Briefing They Furiously Demanded

most of the House Republicans who had demanded their own closed-door briefing from the administration on President Barack Obama’s struggling health care rollout were no-shows on Wednesday.

This is what is wrong with congress in one simple headline. There is far more interest in outrage than due diligence. You would think that they would want to actually do their jobs, or simply to sit in the briefing and then attack the parts of Obamacare they hate. But no. They just want to yell and scream and don’t care if they get any facts right.