Cost of Health Insurance Results in Poor Job Growth

It's official, US corporations, both large and small, are not hiring because of the high cost of health insurance.

A relentless rise in the cost of employee health insurance has become a significant factor in the employment slump, as the labor market adds only a trickle of new jobs each month despite nearly three years of uninterrupted economic growth.

Government data, industry surveys and interviews with employers big and small indicate that many businesses remain reluctant to hire full-time employees because health insurance, which now costs the nation's employers an average of about $3,000 a year for each worker, has become one of the fastest-growing costs for companies. Health premiums are sapping corporate balance sheets even more than the rising cost of energy.

Some of the biggest proponents of National Health Care are now from big business. They recognize that national health care in Europe represents a subsidy to European corporations. In the US we have managed a system that represents the worst of both worlds. We have high costs and mis-management by bureaucrats in the private health industry.