Economic Implications of Non-Employer Bound Health Insurance

There's several multi-page long universal health insurance threads. One interesting aspect that has not been covered is the economic implication of employees not being bound to employers for health insurance. This thread is not about the costs of universal healthcare or whether its good or bad. Use the other threads for that. This thread is about what happens to the economy in the next 10 years if the legislation passes.

Currently, there are a lot of people who feel stuck in their current jobs due to health conditions they have. They work jobs they hate just to qualify for their exclusion-free insurance. If this insurance could be obtained without working for this hated job, then they would quit. Let's discuss how the economy would be effected.

Let's assume that a lot of entry to mid-level corporate jobs fall under this category. Let's also assume the economy recovers and unemployment drops back to 4%. With high unemployment, people have fewer options. In this scenario, a significant number of the workforce of these jobs may quit and purchase cheap insurance (subsidized by the healthy that are required to buy it at a higher price point) and become entrepenuers and self-employed. Perhaps they will make crafts to sell on eBay. What happens to the corporations that now have to pay higher wages to attract new employees that are willing to do a job they hate for the increased compensation. Now the corps have a higher cost margin and reduced profit margins.

How can we profit from this? So far everything on here is just speculation and rhetoric. What if we assembled a list of the most hated companies to work for. Through websites where employees voice their opinions, it could be possible to numerically calculate average job satisfaction. Perhaps employee turnover numbers of publically traded companies are available as well. The companies with the worst job satisfaction and highest turnover are the most likely to have increased turnover with universal healthcare.

Companies such as eBay that facilitate small business entrepreneurs are likely to experience greater volume. Companies with a good culture, high employee happiness and low turnover (see Fortune top 100 companies to work for list) are likely to excel in comparison to the "bad" companies to work for.

Further thoughts?

Your threads sure cover a lot of topics.

Is it winter break already ?

Non-employer-based insurance reduces the competitiveness of good employers (and industries) and it increases competitiveness of weak companies (and industries).

They have less on which with which they can differentiate themselves.

OP, are you getting any college credit for posting all that you do? What are the economic motivators behind such postings?

Xnarg said: walletfart said: someone who hates their job and is just hanging on for the health insurance may actually be counter-productive to the company, maybe them quitting will benefit the companyAt least for now, and in non-union environments, counter-productive individuals can be let go.But his point was that the job-hater may not be outwardly and obviously counter-productive.