Paul Waldman in the Washington Post:
As the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors threatens to drag on, the company decided to play hardball: It announced that it is cutting off health benefits for striking workers. Though they will be able to pick up coverage through COBRA with the help of the union — coverage that won’t be as comprehensive — the move sends a clear message that this will be a merciless fight.
Which reminds us of something very important about health-care reform, no matter what form it takes under the next Democratic president: We have to move away from the ridiculous system where the insurance you have, and whether you have insurance at all, is dependent on the benevolence of your boss.
….
Most people have probably never questioned it: You get a job, and if you’re lucky, it comes with health insurance. You boss decides what kind of plan you’re on, and every year he decides if he wants to switch you to a different one (which is why “If you like your plan, you can keep it” is a fiction, no matter who’s saying it). That’s just how things work.
But more than 150 million Americans get health coverage through their jobs not because anyone thought it would be the best way to construct an insurance system. It was an accident of history…