One of the most important reason jobs are being moved overseas or outsourcing to foreign countries, I believe, is not about cheap labor. A C.E.O. sitting in an office today can control and predict their labor cost in terms of wages for years into the future but the companies cost of employees health care 5 years down the road is totally unpredictable.
Health care cost has been increasing at rates far above inflation, in fact more then 3 to4 times inflation, in the private sector.
Medicare is also increasing at rates above inflation but considerable less then the private sector. Medicare's increases are at least a little more understandable given at the moment medicare deals exclusively with the elderly and disabled, who are almost by definition are more likely to require continuing health care and to deal with more acute and costly treatments and procedures.
Given the limited pool of recipients Medicare must deal with the fact the increased cost of Medicare is less then the increases in the private sector is nothing less then astonishing.
With Medicares ablility to show at least a better handle on dealing with cost increases and the removal of a profit motive. We can return Health Care coverage to what it should be, a shared risk and responsibility among a People committed to the idea that health care is a Right of all people.
This is why I believe that a "Medicare Buy-In" is a sound way to save Medicare for the approaching baby-boomer crunch and a reasonable first step to Universal Health Care
