{"id":128887,"date":"2025-07-30T15:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/30\/tying-health-care-to-employment-cuts-productivity-harms-the-economy-and-makes-workers-miserable\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:17:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:17:32","slug":"tying-health-care-to-employment-cuts-productivity-harms-the-economy-and-makes-workers-miserable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/30\/tying-health-care-to-employment-cuts-productivity-harms-the-economy-and-makes-workers-miserable\/","title":{"rendered":"Tying Health Care To Employment Cuts Productivity, Harms The Economy, And Makes Workers Miserable"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been listening to the audio book version of \u201cCareless People<\/a>\u201d by Sarah Wynn-Williams. If you haven\u2019t read it, you should. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

Despite being set within the halls of Facebook, one of the most powerful companies on the planet, it is remarkable how relatable so many of the problems the author faces are. It reminds me of working at a law firm, except in the book, rather than law firm partners recklessly wielding their power for personal gain while completely blinding themselves to the negative externalities of their actions, it\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg doing the same with global consequences.<\/p>\n

One particular problem Wynn-Williams describes, and I don\u2019t think this is much of a spoiler because almost every person who has ever been employed has had the same problem at one point or another, is wanting to leave her job but being unable to because the health insurance her family relies on is being provided by Facebook.<\/p>\n

Wynn-Williams becomes disillusioned with Facebook long before she ultimately leaves the company but has to keep helping it wreck democracy around the world for years because she needs the health benefits and has trouble finding another equivalent job. From Facebook\u2019s perspective, during that lag time she is providing them with worse labor. From her perspective, she is justifiably miserable. This is partially a function of the fact that tying health care to a particular employer is stupid and dramatically harms both the individual and the broader economy.<\/p>\n

No employer would be dumb enough to say anything about this directly or to put it in writing, but bosses know they have us by the balls when it comes to health care. Are you really going to risk suing your company because your boss is mildly sexually harassing you when you know your kid might need surgery funded by the company health insurance package? Of course you are not going to take this risk. You are going to be reluctantly willing to just swallow all sorts of abuses from your boss to keep your health care, because even for high-achievers it is very difficult to find another job with good health benefits.<\/p>\n

Countless personal miseries can be laid at the feet of a health care system driven by employer-sponsored insurance. It is also a disaster for the broader economy.<\/p>\n

This figure varies over time and by methodology, but one fairly recent survey found that a third of workers<\/a> who get their health insurance through their employers would either be very likely or somewhat likely to quit if they did not have to rely on their employers for health insurance. This survey also found that 26% of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance said they would start their own companies if health insurance was not a factor.<\/p>\n

Think of all that innovation we are missing out on from more than a quarter of workers who would rather be trying out their own things if that wouldn\u2019t entail being bankrupted by keeping themselves and their kids alive. Think of how much more productive workers would be if a third of them could be doing something they were actually passionate about.<\/p>\n

This is not an intractable problem. Every single other wealthy country in the world has some form of government-sponsored health care that is not tied to a specific employer for primary health care coverage. We could emulate any international example we chose, and combine that with all the good old-fashioned American ingenuity we already have going for us here.<\/p>\n

Yes, government-sponsored health care is expensive. Insurance premium payments are also expensive. Whatever the funding source, it is all going to pay for the same health care services, so there is no reason government-sponsored primary coverage needs to be inherently more expensive than the current system in which most people rely on their employers for coverage (in fact, the former should be cheaper than the latter in that it cuts out the for-profit middlemen \u2014 private insurance companies \u2014 and also through the much more powerful negotiating leverage single-payer systems have over providers).<\/p>\n

Well, I feel a lot of solidarity with Sarah Wynn-Williams and everyone else faced with the same impossible choices. At least she now has a bestselling book under her belt, even as Facebook is still trying to make her miserable<\/a>. Myself? I\u2019ve just been raw dogging it without health insurance for the past two years since I became an independent operator. Hopefully we can all struggle through another four years in this garbage system, because the current occupant of the White House has no intention of changing it.<\/p>\n

\n

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Your Debt-Free JD<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn\u2019t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>jon_wolf@hotmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Tying Health Care To Employment Cuts Productivity, Harms The Economy, And Makes Workers Miserable<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

I\u2019ve been listening to the audio book version of \u201cCareless People<\/a>\u201d by Sarah Wynn-Williams. If you haven\u2019t read it, you should. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

Despite being set within the halls of Facebook, one of the most powerful companies on the planet, it is remarkable how relatable so many of the problems the author faces are. It reminds me of working at a law firm, except in the book, rather than law firm partners recklessly wielding their power for personal gain while completely blinding themselves to the negative externalities of their actions, it\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg doing the same with global consequences.<\/p>\n

One particular problem Wynn-Williams describes, and I don\u2019t think this is much of a spoiler because almost every person who has ever been employed has had the same problem at one point or another, is wanting to leave her job but being unable to because the health insurance her family relies on is being provided by Facebook.<\/p>\n

Wynn-Williams becomes disillusioned with Facebook long before she ultimately leaves the company but has to keep helping it wreck democracy around the world for years because she needs the health benefits and has trouble finding another equivalent job. From Facebook\u2019s perspective, during that lag time she is providing them with worse labor. From her perspective, she is justifiably miserable. This is partially a function of the fact that tying health care to a particular employer is stupid and dramatically harms both the individual and the broader economy.<\/p>\n

No employer would be dumb enough to say anything about this directly or to put it in writing, but bosses know they have us by the balls when it comes to health care. Are you really going to risk suing your company because your boss is mildly sexually harassing you when you know your kid might need surgery funded by the company health insurance package? Of course you are not going to take this risk. You are going to be reluctantly willing to just swallow all sorts of abuses from your boss to keep your health care, because even for high-achievers it is very difficult to find another job with good health benefits.<\/p>\n

Countless personal miseries can be laid at the feet of a health care system driven by employer-sponsored insurance. It is also a disaster for the broader economy.<\/p>\n

This figure varies over time and by methodology, but one fairly recent survey found that a third of workers<\/a> who get their health insurance through their employers would either be very likely or somewhat likely to quit if they did not have to rely on their employers for health insurance. This survey also found that 26% of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance said they would start their own companies if health insurance was not a factor.<\/p>\n

Think of all that innovation we are missing out on from more than a quarter of workers who would rather be trying out their own things if that wouldn\u2019t entail being bankrupted by keeping themselves and their kids alive. Think of how much more productive workers would be if a third of them could be doing something they were actually passionate about.<\/p>\n

This is not an intractable problem. Every single other wealthy country in the world has some form of government-sponsored health care that is not tied to a specific employer for primary health care coverage. We could emulate any international example we chose, and combine that with all the good old-fashioned American ingenuity we already have going for us here.<\/p>\n

Yes, government-sponsored health care is expensive. Insurance premium payments are also expensive. Whatever the funding source, it is all going to pay for the same health care services, so there is no reason government-sponsored primary coverage needs to be inherently more expensive than the current system in which most people rely on their employers for coverage (in fact, the former should be cheaper than the latter in that it cuts out the for-profit middlemen \u2014 private insurance companies \u2014 and also through the much more powerful negotiating leverage single-payer systems have over providers).<\/p>\n

Well, I feel a lot of solidarity with Sarah Wynn-Williams and everyone else faced with the same impossible choices. At least she now has a bestselling book under her belt, even as Facebook is still trying to make her miserable<\/a>. Myself? I\u2019ve just been raw dogging it without health insurance for the past two years since I became an independent operator. Hopefully we can all struggle through another four years in this garbage system, because the current occupant of the White House has no intention of changing it.<\/p>\n

\n

Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Your Debt-Free JD<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn\u2019t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>[email\u00a0protected]<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been listening to the audio book version of \u201cCareless People\u201d by Sarah Wynn-Williams. If you haven\u2019t read it, you should. It\u2019s great. Despite being set within the halls of Facebook, one of the most powerful companies on the planet, it is remarkable how relatable so many of the problems the author faces are. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/angry-upset-doctor-physician-health-care-megaphone-jNag9Q.jpg?fit=724%2C483&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}