Hacker News Reader

Comment by ThePowerOfFuet | Hacker News Reader

> You get healthcare 7 days a week but only work for 4. Salary is only one component of compensation

Thinking of healthcare as compensation is what got America into the healthcare mess it's in today.

It emerged from government wage and price controls, wherein health care coverage was exempted. When employers couldn’t compete by raising wages (as that was made illegal), they chose to compete on health coverage. By the time the wage controls were rolled back, it was hard to get that genie back into the bottle.

There used to be a maximum wage in the United States?

There was not a maximum wage, but there was a prohibition on raising wages: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabilization_Act_of_1942#Co...

well, it's not the root cause. there's many reasons why healthcare is way too expensive in america. the fact is that employers pay a huge sum for healthcare in the US and this makes up a sizable portion of your compensation. if you earn 50K and the health insurance for your family costs 20K per year, that's pretty big.

the solution of course is to get those healthcare premiums lowered: that's going to require some kind of rationing.

Cost controls, not rationing. The problem is that capitalism fails in the case of healthcare. How much is your health worth? Every last cent you’ve got.

cost controls are a form of rationing and a good one, at least for the field of healthcare.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com