"Those rising costs eat into every employee’s take-home pay." "...every time health care costs rose by a dollar, an employee’s overall compensation got cut by

"Those rising costs eat into every employee’s take-home pay." "...every time health care costs rose by a dollar, an employee’s overall compensation got cut by 52 cents." When you read things like this, you should be remembering all those articles you saw about "the widening wealth gap." This is one of the mechanisms by which wealth is extracted from what's left of the middle class and given to wealthy shareholders. And when you read... "The hospital and insurance company had agreed on a price and he was required to help pay it. It’s a three-party transaction in which only two of the parties know how the totals are tallied." ...you should be reminded of the now commonplace idea usually mentioned regarding Facebook et al: If you're not paying (your own medical costs, directly), you're the product. The analogy isn't quite one-to-one, but the insurer kind of sells you to the hospital. But then the hospital wants its cut too. So they work out a deal. Your illness, to either of the two companies, isn't a misfortune; it's an opportunity. They jack up the price and basically end up splitting the profit. It needs to be regulated. But legislators beholden to those rich shareholders will fight that idea, and they'll tend to hide it behind some deep-sounding philosophical argument about free markets that they don't actually believe.