Poll: Don't require businesses to provide health care
bizjournals.com
Millions of employed Americans go uninsured each year because their companies, for many different reasons, do not offer health care benefits.
But 47 percent of respondents in an informal Los Angeles Business survey said they do not feel the responsibility for health care lies with the employer, and that businesses should not be legally required to offer it.
"Paying for health care isn't any more the responsibility of an employer than buying groceries for the employee," said one respondent. "The employer should pay the employee, and the employee should decide for himself how to use his money."
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Shame on bizjournals.com for this one. Despite the article's title, only 47% of respondents stated they believed the responsibility of providing healthcare to employees doesn't lie with the employer. That's a plurality at best, and a minority opinion at worst.
Healthcare is an extremely important issue that should be examined objectively and impartially; half-baked “informal business polls“ that don't even identify the polling group do a disservice to people who are actually working to address the healthcare crisis in America today.
Personaly, I'm betting the polling group consisted entirey of small business owners. The word "responsibility" appeared twice, but it was directed at employees, not employers. Also, the financial impact of employer-provided healthcare insurance was raised but only in the context of small businesses, despite the prevalence of the topic in the national press as it applies to Fortune 500 companies like General Motors and Wal-Mart.
If you read the rest of the article, other individual responses were quoted that raised some red flags to me about how seriously this poll should be taken by readers. One in particular, equating bird flu with cancer and naming it as a specific health threat that should require employers to provide insurance strikes me as ridiculous - and an obvious straw man argument.