I've been resisting introducing politics to this blog, but after some careful consideration I decided that I am going to occasionally write on issues that are important to technology workers. The healthcare coverage is such an issue.
There is a lot of debate going on right now over the approaches and solutions to the healthcare reform. IT is probably the only white-collar industry that has been downsized, bubbled, resized, outsourced and excessively mismanaged.
From the standpoint of a software engineer I'd say that at the minimum the health insurance must be detached from employment. The responsibility for purchasing health insurance should be transferred from the employer to the employee. It has to be tax deductible for employees to purchase their own insurance.
Second, the insurance has to be portable. Just like I can have my car insurance and life insurance policies independent of my employment status I should be able to have my health insurance regardless of my employment status. As it stands now the insurance companies prefer to only work with employers and make it rather difficult for individuals to purchase affordable coverage. Insurance companies are also regional monopolies and for all practical purposes they are price-fixing trusts.
Third, catastrophic health care coverage should be built into unemployment insurance. Private plans shouldn't have to cover things like cancer -- this is where the government plant would kick in.
Overall, it all boils down to this -- current health insurance system is defunct. It is used as a weird incentive for people not to quit their jobs. In many ways it acts as a break on innovation, i.e. only larger more established firms can afford health plans and it is difficult for technology startups to do the same. It simply doesn't work. To me no reform at all is unacceptable.
