Keep Sight of the Goal

For the past 50 years, Americans have looked to their employers for their health care. This has been so prevalent that most Americans have not even considered looking elsewhere for health care coverage until recently. Employer health plans are no longer the solution as these same plans have contributed to the downfall of many of those companies that offered them. In Michigan, the big three cite the costs to carry those plans as a factor in their inability to be competitive with imports made by companies that don't have to factor in exorbitant health care plans -- competitors whose employees for the most part have universal health care coverage.

Employers, like everyone in America, need to be part of sweeping health care reform. They need to contribute in the form of a tax or partial contribution to employee premiums. This will help offset the cost of covering everyone while still relieving major companies of high costs associated with employer plans. We can't lose sight of the goal: to provide affordable and equal coverage for all Americans. With or without mandates, the current proposed plan still falls far short of that goal.

By Kathy-Ellen Kups  |  October 7, 2009; 7:51 PM ET  | Category:  Employer health plans , Health Care Reform , Insurance
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