First Healthcare, then Retirement

Check out David Wray's blog post about United States policy decisions regarding benefits such as health care and retirement income. Mr. Wray is the president of The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America

From his blog posting:
"The US made a decision in the 1930s to limit government delivered “benefits" to Social Security-provided retirement income. Paying for other benefits was a personal responsibility, though in some cases employers were encouraged to help. Since then government-provided benefits in the US have expanded but mostly as part of the safety net.

European countries took a different direction. In Europe certain benefits were defined as a right, and the government provided them to everyone. Some here have been disappointed at our more limited approach and attempts to implement the European approach have been ongoing. For example, they were successful in getting Medicare adopted in the 1960’s. Saturday's vote in US House of Representatives on health care shows the current strength of those advocating this philosophy."