Employer-sponsored health care insurance

[bhchao]

With the recent surge in the number of employers in the US who are cutting back on health care coverage for their employees, health care coverage has been a hot topic lately.

Many employers are shifting more of the cost of health care coverage to the employee. This adds extra burden to employees since healthcare costs have steadily risen over the years. With essential expenses such as food and housing, senior retirees would be so heavily burdened that they would have to rely on family members for support.

Some employers pay entirely for the employee's cost, but require the employee to pay incremental amounts in order to extend health care coverage to dependents.

Just recently the US Supreme Court ruled that the government can cut back on its Medicare benefits to an elderly disabled man despite him having high healthcare costs, because he still had delinquent student loans in the 70's that he has not fully paid back yet.

Based on this article, healthcare coverage is also a concern in China, especially for the rural poor and middle class who cannot afford the costs of healthcare. I heard employers in China are required to provide mandatory healthcare insurance? It looks like this is still insufficient coverage for many urban residents.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/11/1165

A lesson to learn from the healthcare dilemma is: Save, save, save. Unless you are in the upper middle class and were very wealthy to begin with.