Affordable Insurance thru a National Single-Employer Plan

A National Single-Employer Plan would end unemployment, enable universal, affordable medical insurance, promote broader coverage, leave employees with more take-home pay, and make American goods more competitive in world markets.  All at the same time.   

The key concept is “single-employer” i.e., a national employment system.

At present, this does not exist in the U.S. Instead, we have hundreds of thousands of separate employers, each with its own employment practices, business practices, payrolls, and other overhead. For example, every grocery store has its own employees, stock supply chain, pricing, and purchasing arrangements, etc. This is why in the separate-grocery business model, we have grocers in some neighborhoods who don't offer fresh produce while grocers in other neighborhoods stock an ample supply of fresh, healthful groceries. More generally, the separate-enterprise model for every businesses is the cause of most problems involving duplication of service in some places, inadequate access in other places, and irrational pricing.  This affects manufacturers, retail outlets, banks, insurance companies, medical offices, schools and colleges, and thousands of other enterprises. 

Economics and common sense both tell us that consolidation reduces unit costs, usually called "economy of scale".  So it's logical that consolidation of the separate-enterprise business model should be the goal. And that ultimately leads to a national, single employer.

The single-employer would be the federal government, which would be the sole national purchaser of labor. Government single employer would eliminate duplicative and needlessly expensive overhead of our present independent and poorly-coordinated employers. The cost of business administration and related payroll costs would plunge by easily 50%.

The trillions saved would permit the single employer system to employ everyone age 16 and above

No one would be denied a job. In fact, everyone would be compelled to work under penalty of law.  Not just junk jobs, mind you, but meaningful, high-paying jobs. The government would assign all jobs fairly, using modern, efficient government planning processes without regard to gender, race, national origin, education, or ability to work. Every working-age American will have a job, and earn a decent living wage paid from public funds. Result: the curse of unemployment is gone forever, financed by savings from the change to single-employer.

This means everyone would have medical insurance through their employer – the federal government.  Our medical insurance would cost much less than today because our medical care would cost much less.  That's because all workers in the medical fields, and those who supply the medical fields, as well as all workers in the insurance field, would be salaried employees of the government, and their salaries would be under strict control.  With lower-cost medical care, it would no linger be necessary for insurance plans to contain high deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and benefit limits.   All this would result in more financial security for Americans, higher take-home pay - and would make American goods more competitive in world markets.

The benefits of a Universal Single-Employer Plan are remarkable.  It's even more remarkable that no one thought of it, until now.