This punishes employees with special needs or those whose lower incomes make it hard to supplement capped company benefits. Health plans may also be going the way of pensions. But all the easy savings have been made, and costs are once again escalating by double digits. The Bush Administration has a similar cost-capping strategy in mind for Medicare. Shifting risk to individuals, though, is more problematic than it seems.
Life takes unpredictable turns, and people sometimes make uninformed choices.
Moreover, high-risk employees, cut loose from the collective security of a corporationwide health plan, often find that insurers will not offer coverage at affordable prices. And given the vagaries of financial markets, new retirees may be innocent victims of nothing more improvident than unlucky timing. This may be one of the most important issues facing America in the years ahead. Robert Kuttner is co-editor of The American Prospect and author of Everything for Sale . The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.