U.S. Manufacturing Industry at the lowest level

Manufacturers cannot control spiraling healthcare benefit costs

The U.S. Manufacturing Industry is at its lowest level in modern history, now at eleven percent of GDP. The cause is the growth of the Healthcare Industry and how the U.S. pays for it.

A simple comparison of the percentage change of the growth of the Healthcare Industry to the Manufacturing Industry shows a direct correlation between the growth of one and the shrinkage of the other, percentage point for a percentage point.  No other industries have been substantially affected by the growth of the Healthcare Industry or by international competitors.

The cause is simple; the U.S. is the only industrial country where the employer pays for the employees' health care benefits. No other International manufacturing competitor pays for health care benefits.

The most fundamental rule of competition is to lower manufacturing costs, whether it is for a small business or a whole country. Until the United States goes from an employer-paid system for healthcare benefits to a citizen paid policy, the United States will continue to lose its dominance in manufacturing.

U.S. Payment of health care costs by employers is the cause of loss of manufacturing companies and manufacturing jobs. Health care costs, both primary and secondary, are passed during each step to the next contributor in the manufacturing process;think of it as value-added tax, moving the health care benefits costs to the nest purchaser of services or good. But. Each time it is passed on, there is an additional markup for profit, therefore the $3.6 trillion for healthcare is included in manufacturing costs.  

Eliminating the Affordable Care Act will only increase the cost of Healthcare in the country and overwhelm the Medicaid programs. The number of personal bankruptcies caused by medical claims will revert from today's half a million, back to one and a half million. The solution is to go further than this and cover every man, woman, and child, and pay for the coverage with income tax revenues.

I am a liberal Republican who wants to grow and strengthen our Manufacturing Industry. Many socialist systems are reasonable, such as the Army, Navy, Airforce, FBI, Police, Fire departments, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Unemployment Benefits, etc.. Making health care for everyone, paying through income taxes, and lowering the Nation's cost to one-third for this benefit makes economic sense to me. In the final analysis, it will strengthen our Capitalistic Free Enterprise System in the United States.