I’ve harped on this issue before, but I still don’t get it: why aren’t businesses in favor of universal health care and severing the link between employment and insurance? Businesses don’t really want to be in charge of insurance plans; if they could get away with it, they would drop insurance. But they can’t, and the consequences for those that try are pretty severe. Every business would like to do it, but unless everybody does it at the same time, nobody wants to go first.
If businesses didn’t have to offer health care, they could focus their energy on doing what they do best, be it selling widgets, cars, cakes, what have you. Employers also wouldn’t need to spend time and money benchmarking their competitors. Employees wouldn’t let a lack of health coverage prevent them from switching jobs, which is a major impediment to labor market liquidity. Entrepreneurship would increase. Finally, those currently administering plans on a company-wide level could do something that adds more to their employer’s productivity.
It’s a win all around, and that’s what confuses me. Why don’t businesses support it?