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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (19986)	11/12/2010 9:59:24 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Imagine a union negotiation scenario. Unions will ask for more money first and foremost. They only way they would ask for something in lieu of money is if the employer had something of value to offer that was worth more than money or if the employer were short on money but could offer something of value that it owned like discounted product, use of facilities, etc. Unless the employer were a medical service provider, medical services would not have cropped up as a benefit any more than pony rides for children or toasters or trips to Disneyland or cars. If unions wanted to go after some benefit not directly related to employment, I could see a progression from paid vacation time to paying for the vacation itself. If they wanted to make a leap to something with even less connection to their employment, housing might be first on the list followed by cars. Health care is considerably further afield. Remember, paying for health care wasn't a big issue back then. Health insurance wasn't that expensive and not on anyone's mind. It only got expensive once it became an employee benefit. This is all true but it was a win/win -- the unions wanted money, the company says, "We can't give you more money but we can buy health insurance for a fraction of what you can buy it for, so why don't we buy insurance for you?" I can see that happening. Not saying it would have but it might have.