Surprise, a tax-funded health insurance program encourages employers to stop offering their employees coverage. More people become dependent on a government program for health insurance, which then results in a constituency that supports the program.  Government dependency grows again, and politicians gain more power over our lives.  The Boston Globe reports:

The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state’s already-stressed budget.

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Come 2014, when the bulk of the federal health care law goes into effect, the penalties for small companies that do not provide health insurance coverage will be less onerous than those in Massachusetts. That could tempt more small companies to opt out nationally, sending more workers to the public rolls — if health care costs can’t be restrained, some analysts said.

“Struggling business don’t necessarily feel the need to offer coverage to attract workers,’’ said Kaiser’s Levitt.

Massachusetts has not decided whether to adopt the federal rules for small businesses.

The federal law does not impose any penalty on companies with fewer than 50 employees that do not offer coverage, whereas in Massachusetts, employers with more than the equivalent of 11 full-time employees face fines for not offering a health plan and contributing at least 20 percent toward that coverage. But for companies with more than 50 workers, the federal law comes down a lot harder than does the state law.

Read the whole article: Firms cancel health coverage: With cost rising, small companies turning to state.

(via FIRM)