Let's say you were able to build a society from scratch. Chances are, you wouldn't think to tether health insurance to employment. The United States is the only industrialized country to use such a system, which is more of an accident of history than a thoughtfully considered idea.
The system, such as it is, isn't working as well as it did a decade ago. The percentage of Americans who get their health insurance through their jobs is in decline. In Missouri, the decrease has been especially sharp.
The nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports that non-elderly Americans who get their health insurance at work fell from 69 percent in 1999-2000 to 61 percent in 2008-09.
The trend reached Missouri with authority. In 1999-2000, 75 percent of the state's population received health insurance through an employer. The number was 63 percent in 2008-09, the last year data was available.
The numbers may improve if the health-care reform law of 2010 works as it was intended. A second report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation anticipates that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will make it easier for companies with fewer than 100 employees to offer health insurance.
Missouri Congressman Sam Graves, who chairs the House Committee on Small Business, does not like the law, however. Here's a video of the Republican arguing for its repeal earlier this year. He used the phrases "common sense" and "reach across the aisle," so you know he's right.
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