Hacker News Reader

Comment by ThomPete | Hacker News Reader

This problem exist outside the US too even in Denmark were health care is free.

The reason why it's not so obvious is that countries like Denmark redistributes wealth much more and have fairly high wages. Denmark doesn't have a minimum wage but instead it's based on negotiations between unions and employers (and sometimes the government if they cant agree). The model is know as Flexicurity[1].

The problem is that that model keeps a lot of people outside the working market because their skills simply aren't worth the salaries they would have to get because of this model. And so in Denmark the problem instead is that companies just move the production out or take in cheap east european labour.

The problem isn't about any specific political prioritization but about something more underlying (my claim is technology).

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexicurity

View on HN

> The problem is that that model keeps a lot of people outside the working market because their skills simply aren't worth the salaries they would have to get because of this model.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a lot of people", but Denmark has one of the highest employment rates among OECD countries, so it's actually doing great at keeping people in employment (comparably).

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/em...

Yeah please see how many people work in the public sector and you start to realize the problem. Also as with most other countries the way employment is measured it's usually based on who is deemed available for the job market. In Denmark a lot of people simply stop being part of the statistics after a while even if they are in theory available for the job market.

Fever and fever people in the private sector providing for an increasing public sector and an increasing senior population.

Denmark pays for it's gigantic wellfare system via income taxation and through a number of taxes on goods (180% on cars for instance)

The current situation right now is that public sector while still growing the public sector year over year is now beginning to cut from areas it used to held almost holy. (Education for instance)

This problem exist outside the US too even in Denmark were health care is free

Well yes and no. Even in European countries someone is paying for it, no? In the UK there is NI and employer's NI - consider the percentages below: https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-rates-letters/contribu...

In Denmark it's paid through taxes and therefore in the context of this discussion literally free for the individual. Or put another way.

They don't have to insure themselves against sickness instead everyone pays in order to spread out the risk across generations. (which is the problem that Obamacare amongst others tries to solve)

Sure, but there is still the effect it has on what it costs an employer to create a job, that's the point I'm making.

Not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate?

From the OP:

Most people in the USA don't realize how much of their total compensation is health insurance since you don't typically see this cost as a line item on your paycheck. The last time I checked, an employer sponsored health plan for a family of 3 from Aetna was close to $2000/month

You might not see it on your paycheque but it's there and it has to be paid from somewhere, and that money isn't therefore available to be given to you in the form of a raise. Which means your cost to the employer can go up without you seeing any of it. That will only get worse.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com