Name:   architect - Subject:   Obama economy legacy building Date:   4/22/2016 10:03:12 PM (updated 4/22/2016 10:29:32 PM)

Hound I heard an economist making a similar point just a few days ago.  More and more individuals will become private contractors providing their own health insurance and other benefits.  His assessment was that this is generally a good thing and simply part of the evolution of the capitalist system. He even pointed out that this trend not only is becoming standard for at least part of the services needed by many major companies, but have led to a huge increase in "work at home" jobs and entire new businesses such as Uber.

One of the best things that could happen to the country, it's economy, health care and the cost of healthcare would be if it became illegal for employers to provide health insurance and required that all citizens obtained health insurance even it a government subsidy was required to for them to afford.  I advocated this on many occasions during the ACA debate.

A major reason healthcare is so much more expensive in this country than the rest of the economically advanced nations is that our healthcare system is an insurance system rather than a health provision system.  With Microsoft and GE and Wells Fargo "providing" insurance to hundreds of thousand employees it becomes a bureaucratic hassle with very little incentive for savings or competition for coverage.  If every individual became a "customer" to the insurance companies they would find away to provide the service at a reasonable cost.  That is basically the Canadian system (yeah I know..."Socialized" medicine!!!) and could have been part of ACA if the insurance industry hadn't had so much input.  The Canadian Provinces provide universal insurance to each individual or family through insurance exchanges managed by the health ministry of the Province but contracting with private insurers who bid for the business.

Now as for Obama's economic legacy...if the eco nomy had performed exactly the same as it has over the last 8 years but President McCain or Romney had been in charge it would be referred to as the "New Economic Miracle" by most of this forum!

And, Caterpillar is doing well enough to have recently opened a new half billion dollar 1 million SF manufacturing facility on 250 acres to employ 1500 in Athens GA! Their sales are up in the US but down in the rest of the world where the economies lag.  Overall, the US economy is the best of any major nation in the world today.