2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If you want Single Payer, are you willing to impose a national sales tax to pay for it? [View all]exboyfil
(17,871 posts)you got the companies that currently offer health insurance to agree to move employees to a single pay system (lets say through a payroll tax like Medicare). My employer proudly shows how much it spends for my premiums on each paystub. Lets say the change would be revenue neutral for the employers and any difference is reflected in increased or decreased pay. Suddenly we will be hearing about how the employers were not actually paying that much.
My example - Employer claims they pay $12,605/yr for a high deductible medical and dental policy (very good insurance once you pony up about $5K). I pay $3,000/yr. So I basically know I am out $8K for health costs per year (less $1,400 HSA contribution from employer).
Lets say we go to a European system. This would increase my/my employer withholdings from 2.9% (Medicare) to 15% (lets be optimistic). The 6.05% additional payroll tax should represent significant savings to my employer. That savings should show up in my paycheck.
No way do I believe that my company actually spends $12K/yr.