Review: "The Tipping Point: Most Americans No Longer Are Middle Class" – NPR
In this story from NPR today, Marily Geewax writes, "a just-released analysis of government data shows that as of 2015, middle-income households have become the minority."
"And middle-income Americans not only have shrunk as a share of the population but have fallen further behind financially, with their median income down 4 percent compared with the year 2000."
I'm not an economist but when I look at a typical middle class budget, a chunk of it goes towards medical expenses and health care premiums. I wonder what would happen if people were able to keep their premiums in their pockets, or at least part of the premiums. Add to the mix the savings businesses will have from not having to contribute to employer-provided insurance, and you have a good argument for P.S.Y.C.H.'s economic effects that is hard to refute.
Ideally, employers would use that money for salaries and incentivize their good workers to stay since health insurance would no longer be a driving force to stay in a job, especially one you don't like. But there's no guarantee that employers would do so. Instead, they may decide to pay it back as dividends to their shareholders, but that's a decision companies were going make anyway.
As it stands, if you're in the "lower class" (a family of three making less than $42K) or "upper class" (a family of three making more than $126K), you'll likely either be covered under a governmental program such as Medicaid, or you can easily afford the ridiculously high premiums of private insurance. But for the "middle", they get caught between a rock and a hard place. In a family-budget pie that isn't expanding (because wages have stagnated), health care expenses have to come from somewhere else.
P.S.Y.C.H. takes what's best about responsible capitalism and uses it to the advantage of the middle class rather than against them as our current system does. While no free-market capitalistic approach will be all-encompassing and free of fault, P.S.Y.C.H. has multiple checks and balances to make this less of an issue. Additionally, I'm sure the state board of directors will be able to fill in any gaps specific to their constituencies.
Additionally, think of the number of jobs the system will create in the form of social workers, therapists, and case management. So I'd say that P.S.Y.C.H. is a win for everyone.