Health Care - 1st Step Toward Universal Health Care?

Having spent much of this year dealing with the health care issues of my wife and son, I've become much more attuned to the headaches and financial costs associated with the current health care system. I work for a company that offers pretty good benefits, health care included. However, each year the costs to the company go up 10% or so, and if anyone is familiar with the impact of "compounding", at some point when expenses go up by this much year after year the result is substantial changes.

So, 2008 is the year of substantial change for my firm. We're moving to a high-deductible plan in combination with a Health Savings Account (HSA). Therefore, I now have the "luxury" of paying slightly less in monthly premiums but covering 100% the first $5,000 of the costs. Only after I've spent $5,000 will the plan start to contribute and eventually I'll have no out of pocket cost. So, if I have another catastrophic year in 2008, at some point the plan covers 100%.

Thankfully, I make enough and have a January bonus from which I'll be able to fully fund my HSA. However, if I were a lower-salary employee with children I'd be panicked at the moment. Taking what I think is a RATIONAL view of such a situation, as this move to high-deductible + HSA model spreads, I believe that politicians will find more traction for Universal Health Care. Hillary may well have been ahead of the curve back in the 1990's. Time will tell.