Corporations are shoving all of the increased cost of worker healthcare, and more, onto their employees, says a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. We already knew that companies are sitting on loads of cash while refusing to hire back laid-off workers, so this is just salt on the wound.

At the same time, corporations are lobbying like crazy to exempt the meager junk insurance that is often sold to low-wage workers exempted from the new health reform law.

Somebody tell me again why Congress thought it was a great a idea to put national health reform in the hands of private, mostly for-profit insurers and large employers? 

Here’s a good summary from the Washington Post story of the effects of the employer cost-shifting on employee insurance:

For family coverage, workers are paying an average of $3,997, up $482
from last year, while employers are paying an average of $9,773, down
$87, according to the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

With so many people out of work, employees have little power to demand a better deal, the organizations said.