The Wrong Direction - Corporate America

June 1st, 2008 | by caprice |

On May 27th, 2008 The Seattle Times published an article by Robert Pear reporting that the “SEC changes position on health policy” stating that companies must allow shareholders to vote on universal coverage as a proxy item. I agree that everyone needs access to health insurance coverage but disagree that this is policy that should be driven by shareholders to corporate America. What we need is separation of employment and health insurance, not more endorcement for it. Entertaining the discussion of how many and to whom companies provide health insurance coverage is diverting the much needed energy from the the real issue. Americans need to be able to afford health insurance regardless of their employment choices - if fact, it should be an independent choice. Currently there many Americans falsely tied to jobs they hate and therefore are not as productive as they could be elsewhere based upon the fact that they need the health insurance. The employer portion of health insurance funding should be allocated to an individuals Health Savings Account and the individuals should be able to choice their own plans that work best for them - not be confined to the limited choices of their employer. What we need is focused discussions about tax reform that encourages acquiring individual insurance plans and employee benefit changes that do the same. We need to separate employment and health insurance coverage, not mandate corporate policies.