> Not to mention that the threat of being left to die from
> treatable illness is a powerful tool to discipline your employees.
> Universal health care removes that Dickensian stick, in appearance if
> not in reality.
Given Americans' lack of savings, and the very limited government help for those who are out of work, you would think that being fired would be a sufficient threat these days... which I guess implies that universal health care legislation is more likely to happen during times of high unemployment :)
Barring major social unrest, your average American CEO is probably far more worried about making money than about keeping the working masses in their rightful place. So if shifting the cost of healthcare to the government will improve their bottom line, some of them will support it. I like Thomas Ferguson's model here: "... as long as basic property rights do not emerge as the dominating issue[,] competition between blocs of major investors drives the system." Major investors being economically powerful groups who can 'invest' in making sure a candidate supporting their particular interests has a viable chance at winning an election. (http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=487 has a partial summary.)