Merrill Goozner connects the new GM-UAW contract with Jared Bernstein's term - YOYO economics -meaning You're On Your Own.
On GoozNews.com he writes:
"News coverage of the General Motors-United Auto Workers settlement describes how YOYO economics is taking over health care -- the last bastion of employer-provided social insurance.Posted by schwitz at September 29, 2007 04:32 PM | TrackBackThe Wall Street Journal's trend story describes how large employers are increasingly shifting their retiree benefits from comprehensive Medicare supplemental plans to individual payouts. This mirrors the Republican approach to universal health care for all workers and their families. We make a flat payment to the individual, and YOYO, You're On Your Own to buy policies in the individual market.
But, as the story points out, there are a few problems with that market:
Shifting people to the individual market is problematic . . . at least under the current set-up. It is difficult for people to understand what they're buying, and those with existing illnesses have trouble finding any coverage.
Indeed, the word that most health care economists and wonks use to describe the individual insurance market is "dysfunctional."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) last year introduced a comprehensive health care reform legislation that repeals the implicit tax break for employer provided health insurance (it's currently not taxed as wages), encourages employers to give the money to their workers, and requires individuals to go out and buy their own insurance plans. But to deal with the dysfunctional individual insurance market, Wyden called for a national regulation scheme for health insurers that would establish community rating for pricing individual policies (it pools risk by mandating that all policies within a geographic area carry the same price for the same level of benefits) and flat-out prohibits insurers from discriminating against potential customers because of previous health conditions, age, or their health status (except for smokers).
The GM-UAW settlement shows that employers are not going to be reliable allies in the push for universal health care. They will opt for any solution that insulates them from rising costs. No one should be surprised. They are not social enterprises in the business of providing benefits. They are in business to make money. That goes for the insurance companies who sell health plans."