In every public health system in a capitalist country that I'm aware of, the immediate costs of health care are payed by workers - either through insurance contributions or through taxes. Now, to a greater or lesser extent, these costs can be indirectly forced onto capitalists, by concerted action by workers forcing them to increase wages or by the state mandating that the wage include a fixed amount paid for health care costs (that is, employer contributions). Any way you cut it, the workers are going to get screwed, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less; the state using its coercive powers universally may mean that we get screwed slightly less, and makes the task of resisting that screwing slightly easier.
> If your "left" favors the state soaking workers on the theory that it
> might someday use similar logic to justify soaking the capitalists,
> sign me up for the right.
I'm not talking about soaking the capitalists at all; I'd rather see capital abolished. I'm talking about health care policy within capitalism, where soaking the capitalists, or abolishing capital, are not on the immediate agenda. --
"Why must man's vocation always be to distinguish
himself from animals?" http://blog.voyou.org/ -- Baudrillard