Would Medicare for All Increase Your Wages?

Medicare for All, which would extend health coverage to all Americans, has been a hot topic of debate in recent years. Researchers have looked into the many ways that a switch to Medicare for All might change our lives, and one of those areas of change might be wages. Employer provided healthcare is baked into our current system of healthcare, and there are a lot of studies that look at how employer paid premiums can depress wages, and how our paychecks might shift in a M4A-type situation.

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[scotthendricks]

When ever I see these numbers it's frightening. The Australian government spends about $4000 per person per year and we get universal coverage. How can premiums be $7000 per year. Insanity.

[TokenSelf]

Employer-provided health insurance isn't about reducing salaries. It's about control. Employees are a lot less likely to leave the company if they'll immediately have to:
- Shop for a new provider.
- Pay full, hefty premiums from their savings.
- Find new doctor(s) depending on who's covered on the new provider.
- Hope they last until they get a new job AND their probationary period ends.

[dudoji]

What timing of this video, the White House just dropped Medicare drug-price negotiations from the spending bill this morning. Looks like Medicare for All won't happen in the immediate time horizon.

[AshenSeraph]

Corporate America: "You're paying less for your health, so we'll just cut your paycheck to adjust for that. I always wanted a new lambo. 3 just isn't enough."

[mdavid]

Just raise the Medicare payroll tax. Expand the system to everyone. You could still have private plans to supplement medicare. (Aka Canada, Australia)

[Praisethesunson]

What if those potential saving just went to the shareholders instead?

Asking for a major corporation.

[DevotedpupaVODs]

Surprisingly fair assessment of M4A considering the sponsor was a health insurance app. Good job on staying honest there.

[Naruedyoh]

In countries with public healthcare we just don't need to worry, we know that even unemployed we get healthcare

[jessetorres]

We need Medicare For All here in the U.S., especially during this time with the Coronavirus pandemic! What's more "pro-life" than ensuring that every person has guaranteed affordable healthcare regardless of their job? If we all had access to basic healthcare, we would have the "freedom" to live long lives and rarely have to worry about medical bankruptcies. Taxes will go up, but the overall cost will go down. If some of us need additional healthcare than Medicare, then we have the "choice" to get additional insurance. If every other developed country (Canada, Germany, The U.K., France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan, Japan, S.K., H.K., Singapore, Australia, and N.Z.) can implement this system and save money, then why can't we do the same and help "Make America Great Again" for everybody at least on the issue of healthcare? And if American citizens die from lacking access to affordable health insurance then we are failing our country's promise of defending "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for its citizens as well as "promoting the general welfare" of all the people living here.

[confusedwhale]

The question is...
Would employers freely give workers money that they could otherwise pocket to pad their bottom line?

There would have to be wording in Medicare For All that stipulated any funds previously contributed to an employee's medicare be distributed to the employees.

[molybdnum]

So basically, "If your employer found a way to save several thousand dollars a year in administrative costs, do you think they would pass that savings on to you /in increased wages/?" No, no, a thousand times no. They aren't now for anything else, and it wouldn't change. Would they re-invest that savings in something else, like expanding infrastructure or buying back shares or hiring more new employees? Probably. But not a single soul in any management position is ever going to voluntarily say to existing employees - we're giving you more money you didn't ask for just because we happened to have it. Employers can and will obfuscate, bluff, and outright lie about this sort of thing even in the most employee-favorable job markets. "Sorry, the budget for raises hasn't changed - you're going to be saving money anyway, so it's almost like you got raise already!"

The best, and often only way to get a raise is and will continue to be entering a new job at a new negotiated compensation.

[d_dave]

Good video. The only thing missing is that it's been proposed that this transition could be improved by actually /mandating/ that wages rise. Let's say you release the text of your M4A bill today, going into effect in January 2022. You write in that bill that any employer providing health insurance to any worker as of yesterday, or at any point between now and the end of 2021, must take the amount they're paying and put it back into the workers paycheck for 2022.

You couldn't stop employers from decreasing workers pay later, but by doing that up front, it would make it harder for employers to do so. Workers would see clearly what was happening (a pay cut), and hate their employer for it. And without being tied to their employer for health insurance, they have more potential to leave for a better option.

[paxundpeace]

The key is that Medicare for all would be a single payer system that would mostly cut out greedy private companies.

[paxundpeace]

Mandating private insurance has shown to be expensive for employees and employer. While many have only limited access to public options.

[ernestchew]

Love the content. Audio is soft though... maybe can bump it up a little

[harshbarj]

Sadly I feel some employers would just keep the money for themselves. Even though that money was technically part of that employees income.

[cbpd]

Wow. We pay something like $12k annually for our family's health care, and we still have to pay a percentage after the deductible is met.

[Peppermon]

I would love to keep that $500 a month! That could go to more of a house payment, an emergency fund, on my children. Too bad that will never happen.

[mrquark]

Medicare for all would give Medicare better bargaining power with providers, at least to the extent it's allowed to bargain. That would lower costs overall. At least some of those lower costs would be passed along to employees. Some would go to stockholders. Healthcare providers and insurance companies wouldn't be thrilled, but those are some the best off anyway, and they benefit from legal or de facto restrictions on competition, so my sympathy for their complaints is not high.

[Nzombii]

Tying workers to a job for life saving healthcare is great for employee retention