On Jul 10, 2009, at 9:47 AM, Kurt Ford wrote: > 3) Would this force Schools to offer higher salaries to attract > qualified Technicians? If we had national health insurance (like the overwhelming majority of the civilized world), the schools (and other businesses - think GM) would be relieved of that burden. And we would be relieved of paying our health insurance deduction. It's hard to predict how everything would end up in the long run, but in the short run, my take home pay would double (as half time, my share is maybe 75%, with the U paying 25%; and my deduction is larger than my net take home pay). It's a complex issue, with many interlocking factors. But it is important to note that employers like schools have been hit very, very hard by the double digit annual inflation in health insurance costs, just as we have. And it has tied their hands. They have been more or less forced into spending more and more on this line item, which means less for anything else. My out of pocket (health insurance deduction) for health insurance is well over $10,000 a year, and the U kicks in another $5000 or so. Amazing to me. I think my lifetime health expenses have been well under that annual sum. Whatever your politics or prejudices or attitude, the facts of the amount of money poured into this black hole are simply astounding, if you stop and think about them. I think there are far better ways of organizing that part of human existence. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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