I know that without repair, health-care reform will destroy full-time jobs, and I'm not a crazy right-winger. Let me tell you why.
I am a liberal/progressive guy. I have fought and bled on behalf of progressive candidates and causes for years. As someone who spent 5 years working in EMS, I have seen the catastrophic consequences of our failed and broken health care system on the lives of thousands of Americans that are unlucky enough to get sick without insurance. I have traveled enough to see real safety nets in other countries that keep their citizens from these horrific situations.
And when they introduced health care reform, I was a huge supporter. I worked, I called, I marched - thinking that maybe we might finally become a first-world country in terms of health care. My hopes finally rose...
Then I had the misfortune of seeing this article at Politico. But when I read the study the union released - the problem is not just Walmart, it's that this health care bill will systematically destroy full-time jobs.
The truth of the matter is, as written in the Senate bill, part-time workers don't matter. They don't count against a company if they're not insured. There are no subsidies to help them in the exchange. If they are paid so little that they go on Medicaid or their children go on SCHIP, there are NO PENALTIES to the employer.
And that's the way the big companies like Walmart want it. They will reduce their full-time workforces. Force even more employees onto public assistance that they don't have to pay for than already are. And as an added bonus - almost any insurance - even Walmart's high-deductible, low quality crapfest of a bottom-end plan - counts as good insurance, so once again - NO PENALTIES for the company.
Our Senate is de facto encouraging these job-killing policies.
Nobody is paying attention to this. The two-line item from Ben Smith, and these two old items from Ezra Klein are the only reporting I can find on it.
One union, the UFCW, has bought ads trying to get some attention for this. They don't appear to be succeeding. We have to draw attention to this.
The UFCW set up a page to call your members of Congress to let them know about the problems with this bill - www.fixthebill.org
You can read their study at that site and call your members of Congress. I urge you - if you want a full-time, working America with good health care to do so - otherwise health care reform will destroy more jobs and kill more health care than it will every provide.