Wal-Mart’s decision to kick their part-time employees off their health care rolls and onto the ObamaCare exchanges is great news. There are more younger, healthier people going on the exchanges, which makes the exchanges stronger and cheaper. A bigger percentage of working people are getting their health care from the government. More working class people are getting the benefit of a subsidy to help pay for their health care. The idea that employers should be the providers of health care for their employees is eroded even further.
I can’t say that this is the beginning of a straight line to a single-payer system, but it’s definitely a blow to the uniquely stupid and accidental American system of providing protection against medical catastrophe.
And it lets the cat out of the bag. We already subsidize Wal-Mart’s low wages with things like food stamps and heating assistance to their dead-broke employees. Why not just be up front about it? We’ll pay for their health care, too.
