I don’t want single-payer health insurance.
You know why?
Because I think the company you work for ought to give you health insurance. I think it’s your employer’s responsibility.
There, I’ve said it.
I’ve said the great forbidden thing in 2017, which is that your employer owes you something other than a paycheck.
It’s forbidden to say because you have to be very, very careful around corporations. They’re fragile. Say one thing they don’t like and, ba-boom!, they’ll close up and you’ll be one of the poor.
Of course, if you’re one of the poor, you can get sick and go to the emergency room and pretty much ignore the bill, so you’ll be better off, at least in that way.
Companies have been weaseling out of providing health insurance for several decades now, just the way they weaseled out of paying you a pension.
And we let them do this, we sat at home, and we cleaned our guns, and we let them take the pension and the health care and the union.
And then we went to work trying to pry the welfare benefits out of some woman’s hands because, by God, she’s a leech. Hell, maybe she is a leech, but your boss is more of a weasel than she is a leech.
You may indeed have health insurance paid for by your employer, but the price goes up every year, and the company you work for, so expert at holding costs down when it comes to your paycheck, says there’s nothing they can do.
I have a pension coming when I retire. The paper where I work has been sold once in the 25 years I’ve worked there, but the company that owned it when I started provided a pension. It comes to about one week’s pay per month, and while that doesn’t seem like much, it’s going to make a difference in my retirement.
The company I work for now offers a 401(k) and I cram every nickel I can into the thing, but it’ll probably never yield the equivalent of one week’s pay every month.
And I stress that I’m not complaining because I’m going to retire poor, because I spent all my money on toys and whiskey, and now I want someone to help me. I’m cheap; I’ve always done freelance work to supplement my newspaper salary; and I’ve saved a hell of a lot of money.
Oh, yeah. I’m going to be fine. I’m fine right now. As far as money goes, I’ve always been fine.
Strangely enough in 2017 America, I also want other people to be fine.
I’m conservative enough to think that the government should not be your health insurance provider, but I’m liberal enough to think that your employer should be required to give you health insurance.
I’m not sure what that makes me in terms of the current American political slur-fest, but I bet it’s a very insulting name. It can’t be worse than “weasel” though.