When you see a gas station with cheap gas are you actually observing?   Consider for example a gas station owner who hires people to pump his gas.  His costs are lower if he can skip providing health coverage.  Examples like that are one reason I support universal provision of healthcare is the powerful way that market competition works to eliminate it.  It’s an ethical puzzle, eh?

The national minimum wage is $7.25/hour, while spend $6,815 per person on health care.  If we presume a 40 hour work week, 52 weeks a year, that’s $3.40/hour.   Or to look at it another average premium for health insurance is $215/month, e.g. $1.29 an hour.

Setting standards, for things like provision of healthcare is one way to address the problems ethical and otherwise that market’s present.   But standards come in many forms, for example labeling.  Maybe the gas stations that have uninsured employees could be required to display a large shaming sign.  Or if you into techno-utopian solutions maybe we could spin up an App for your phone that let’s you look this info up.

The Times has an article today about how the people who pick our vegetables lack health insurance and providing it might cost a dollar an hour.  Well yeah.