Who is Responsible For Unsustainable Health Care Costs?
Part 1 of this three-part series answered this question by addressing the fault of health insurance brokers. Part II of this series shifts to the culpability of employers who provide insurance to their employees. The employer-based health insurance system that we are familiar with in this country is very unique. No other industrialized nation has anything quite like the American system which developed as a means to circumvent wage controls that were imposed by Congress during World War II. Since that time, employees have come to expect fringe benefits such as health insurance as part of their total compensation package. In this system, we entrust our employers with some very important decisions that largely determine what our cost of medical care and access to medical care will be. We rely on our employers to make good decisions that will afford us better access and cost control than we would have on our own. A very disconcerting pattern that I see as I interact with Human Resource and
