The employer mandates in the current fair share legislations are hardly stringent. As health care costs rise, the mandate to pay at least 8 percent of payroll may eventually sound like a bargain. Also, such mandates give corporations reasons to redouble efforts to keep down the overall payroll (wages and the like), so that 8 percent wouldn't amount to much in terms of absolute labor costs.
Besides, even while fair share legislations pass, many corporations and governments that used to offer good to excellent health care are passing more and more of the health care costs to employees and retirees. The longer you wait, the fewer reasons corporate America will have to come around to single-payer health care, if GM and the like succeed in cutting their health care costs.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>