I’m sitting here
trying to figure out what I could possibly write about on an economics blog.
While flipping through the recent Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, an article caught
my eye with fun little comics entitled, “Your
Health Plan Will Now Self-Destruct.” This topic interests me as I am
responsible for choosing the health plan(s) that the company I work for offers
to its employees. Our company has seen the cost of healthcare nearly double
over the last few years, and we often wonder how we will be able to continue to
afford it in a few years at this rate.
The demand for
skilled workers has also increased lately. In turn, those skilled workers demand
good benefits including health insurance. But, the supply of skilled workers
seems bleak. I must admit, the U.S. economy does seem to be improving. Furthermore,
as the economy improves, the demand for skilled workers increases. This
requires companies to pay a higher price to keep their skilled workers.
While browsing
the internet earlier, I even found an advertisement from McDonald’s stating
they now offer health insurance. It appears this is their new recruitment
technique. You can check out the details here: McDonald's
USA Announces New Employee Benefit Package Including Wage Increase and Paid
Time Off at Company-Owned Restaurants.
But getting back
to the original article, Tozzi (the author) reports that the Obama
administration loaned $2.4 billion to establish 23 health insurer co-ops. Ten
of those co-ops have already gone under. If you are interested in how much that
cost the government – it’s $1,072,174,773. Yes, over one billion dollars was
loaned to co-ops that have failed. At least half a million people now have to
find new coverage. I’m sure many people have also lost their jobs. I guess we
will just have to wait and see how the ACA will continue to affect the economy.