Well I think health care reform goes with the job crisis. People's health insurance is tied to their jobs, and in my opinion it shouldn't be. Businesses are cutting back on full time positions to save on benefits. One position i applied for was 30 minutes shy of full time. Not because they couldn't shell out the extra $6 a week for the extra 30 minutes, but because they couldn't afford to pay for the insurance. Health care is definitely the #1 issue at our house. My husband works for a small business that does not pay for his plan (but thankfully has one, because we were denied for individual coverage for pre-existing conditions.) Our premium costs as much as our mortgage. We pay so much because he works for a small company. If he worked for a large corporation we would probably pay 1/2 as much (larger pool) but not everyone desires to work for a large company. I don't understand why we all can't have the same chance for coverage? My property taxes pay for our teachers' fancy insurance - yet I can't get insurance myself??
We would have so much more freedom if health care was not tied to our jobs. I have a college degree but I've worked mostly as a secretary because my health isn't so great and I needed jobs with good insurance and didn't have the option to do internships or whatever to work my way up the ladder to a job with fancy benefits. If I didn't have to worry about insurance I would have had a lot more options, career wise. Interviewers don't like it when your first question is about health insurance, but mine has to be. That doesn't fly right now when 100 more people are lined up for that job.
Anyway, I heard an interesting theory on the radio yesterday - lowering the SS/Medicare retirement age. That way people like my father (an engineer) who is close to retirement age and could financially retire but is still working for the health insurance could retire and open up a spot for someone out of work or a recent college grad. If those people qualified for medicare, could tap into their retirement funds, etc. they would be more likely to choose to retire. More young people working means more people paying into medicare, supporting the old folks. And less unemployment (16% of the work force is over 55, and unemployment is around what 12%?) means less demand for jobs which means employers need to pay MORE to get good employees which means higher salaries, more people paying more taxes, etc. I thought it was a neat idea. I think he called it "cash for geezers" LOL It's a good discussion to have but no one is having it because everyone is yelling at each other right now.
I also think higher salaries would help the housing crisis. I've said for a long time that housing prices weren't sustainable because the increases were far exceeding the increases in incomes (which have remained quite flat) Our tiny townhouse is worth far less than we paid for it because far fewer people can afford it with a "real" mortgage and 20% down, whereas 5 years ago anyone could buy it with some creative financing. We bought the smallest house available, WAY out in the boonies (we are barely considered Chicago suburbs) but we were tired of living in an apartment. Now we are stuck. What did we do wrong? If incomes go up, more people could afford to pay the asking prices and the housing market will regulate. I also think if people/employers weren't paying hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars a month for health insurance that salaries would go up. It's all related!
The one group seriously caught up in this are the recent college grads. Many wait tables or work retail until they land a full time job, but they've aged out of their parents' insurance and part time jobs don't pay benefits. Since there aren't any jobs, a situation that may have lasted the summer after college is lasting a lot longer! My young cousin had a new job when he got cancer. They dropped him because they said it was pre-existing(!) Thank goodness his mom was able to pay out of pocket (probably her whole retirement fund) until he was well enough to get a new job with better insurance. He didn't do anything wrong, but he got stuck in the middle of this health care crisis.
What if you have a kid who needs constant medical care - it takes 90 days at most new jobs to get your insurance. Those people are stuck in their jobs right now. How many have the skills to go out and be entrepreneurs, or even just get a job with a higher salary, but are stuck being a corporate drone or working at Starbucks or Walgreens just so their kid can go to the doctor. I used to work at a school. I've seen it happen.
But if those people could move up the ladder it would open up those entry level jobs for the college grads and get the whole system moving again!