Of Private and Public Safety Nets (The View from Here‪)‬

If any doubts remain regarding the necessity for health reform or for an enlightened and judicious process of addressing our social insurance and safety-net spending, one only has to observe our increasingly frail private, employment-related safety net and the tenuous employment circumstances that have characterized the last two decades. Once a critical component of middle-class economic and health security, the private safety net--consisting of employment-related health insurance, retiree health coverage and pension benefits, paid sick leave, and other valued work-related benefits--has developed gaping holes that are unlikely to be repaired in the foreseeable future. As of this March writing, we are slowly emerging from the dismal employment prospects brought about by the Great Recession. While February's decline in the unemployment rate to just below 9% and the addition of 192,000 private-sector jobs are causes for optimism, the changing nature of employment contracts, employer commitments to job-related benefits, and the types of jobs the newly employed are likely to acquire should give us pause. At issue are whether many middle-class workers will acquire and continue to hold jobs that will yield both economic and health security.