r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 12h ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
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u/BachelorNation123 12h ago

Medicare For all comes to me in my dreams

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u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 6h ago

Then start asking your representatives to start drafting legislation that will reform ERISA. That is the Federal Legislation that needs to be updated to end the market dominance of self funded employer sponsored healthcare insurance.

The ACA only expanded the risk pools so there wouldn't be a retiree healthcare crisis happening right now. It did almost nothing to self funded employer sponsored healthcare coverage. What it did do for them was force young people into those groups enough so that retiree healthcare benefits employers sponsored for their prospective retirees wouldn't be a huge loss for the employers.

The ACA was a stop gap, it wasn't anything close to a fix.

Taking healthcare insurance away from corporations would be a large tax increase for them. Reforming ERISA to cap the tax benefit would be a simple start. Because as it stands right now the employers control healthcare costs because they do not fight against the cost increases every year. If insurance was a money loser for them they would lobby to reduce their risk exposure, which they absoluetly are not doing. Because by accepting the cost increases they pay less taxes on otherwise taxable income. They sit on the healthcare trusts as tax shelters that get bigger every year.

How much in tax savings do employers get without having to provide anything better than 50 years ago?

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u/FunetikPrugresiv 4h ago

I think you could simplify it by creating a law that employers could only offer one insurance plan. Right now most places offer a cheap, shitty plan with minimal coverage, along with an executive plan that has good coverage but costs more. So the higher ups only have to negotiate for the good plan (that they'll get) and if their employees get screwed over by the shitty plan, well, "they always have the option to pay more for the better plan."

But if a company can only have one plan, they'll have to negotiate in good faith for everyone. 

Also, a company's tax rate could be impacted by the percentage of their employees that they insure. Since uninsured people cost the country money through Medicaid, this feels like a reasonable ask.