As health costs continue to grow, strainingemployer budgets and slowing wage growth, more in the businesscommunity are beginning to take Medicare for All more seriously.(Photo: Shutterstock)

EASTON, Pa. — Walk into a big-box retailer such as Walmart orMichaels and you're likely to see MCS Industries' picture frames,decorative mirrors or kitschy wall décor.

Adjacent to a dairy farm a few miles west of downtown Easton,MCS is the nation's largest maker of such household products. ButMCS doesn't actually make anything here anymore. It has moved itsmanufacturing operations to Mexico and China, with the lastmanufacturing jobs departing this city along the Delaware River in2005. MCS now has about 175 U.S. employees and 600 peopleoverseas.

“We were going to lose the business because we were no longercompetitive,” CEO Richard Master explained. And one of the biggestimpediments to keeping labor costs in line, he said, has been theincreasing expense of health coverage in the United States.

Today, he's at the vanguard of a small but growing group ofbusiness executives who are lining up to support a “Medicare for All” national health program. Heargues not that health care is a human right, but that coveringeveryone with a government plan and decoupling health care coveragefrom the workplace would benefit entrepreneurship.

Related: 4 reasons employer-sponsored health insurance won'tgo away

In February, Master stood with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)outside the Capitol after she introduced her Medicare for All bill.“This bill removes an albatross from the neck of American business,puts more money in consumer products and will boost our economy,”he said.

As health costs continue to grow, straining employer budgets andslowing wage growth, others in the business community are beginningto take the option more seriously.

While the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other large business lobbyinggroups strongly oppose increased government involvement in healthcare, the resolve of many in the business community — especiallyamong smaller firms — may be shifting.

“There is growing momentum among employers supportingsingle-payer,” said Dan Geiger, co-director of the BusinessAlliance for a Healthy California, which has sought to generatebusiness support for a universal health care program in California.About 300 mostly small employers have signed on.

“Businesses are really angry about the system, and there is alot of frustration with its rising costs and dysfunction,” hesaid.

Geiger acknowledged the effort still lacks support from anyFortune 500 company CEOs. He said large businesses are hesitant toget involved in this political debate and many don't want to losethe ability to attract workers with generous health benefits.“There is also a lingering distrust of the government, and theythink they can offer coverage better than the government,” hesaid.

In addition, some in the business community are hesitant to signon to Medicare for All with many details missing, such as how muchit would increase taxes, said Ellen Kelsay, chief strategy officerfor the National Business Group on Health, a leading business groupfocused on health benefits.

Democrats propel the debate

For decades, a government-run health plan was considered tooradical an idea for serious consideration. But Medicare for All hasbeen garnering more political support in recent months, especiallyafter a progressive wave helped Democrats take control of the Housethis year. Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates,including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, strongly backit.

The labor unions and consumer groups that have long endorsed asingle-payer health system hope that the embrace of it by employerssuch as Master marks another turning point for the movement.

Supporters of the concept say the health system overall wouldsee savings from a coordinated effort to bring down prices and theelimination of many administrative costs or insurance companyprofits.

“It's critical for our success to engage employers, particularlybecause our current system is hurting employers almost as much asit is patients,” said Melinda St. Louis, campaign director ofMedicare for All at Public Citizen, a consumer-rights group basedin Washington.

Master, a former Washington lawyer, worked on Democratic Sen.George McGovern's presidential campaign before returning toPennsylvania in 1973 to take over his father's company, which maderigid paper boxes. In 1980, he founded MCS, which pioneered thepopular front-loading picture frame and steamless fog-free mirrorsfor bathrooms. The company has grown into a $250 millioncorporation.

Master frequently travels to Washington and around the countryto talk to business leaders as he seeks to build political supportfor a single-payer health system.

In the past four years, he has produced several documentary videos on the topic.In 2018, he formed the Business Initiative for HealthPolicy, a nonprofit group of business leaders, economists andhealth policy experts trying to explain the financial benefits of asingle-payer system.

Dan Wolf, CEO of Cape Air, a Hyannis, Mass.-based regionalairline that employs 800 people calls himself “a free market guy.”But he also supports Medicare for All. He said Master helps turnthe political argument over single-payer into a practical one.

“It's about good business sense and about caring for hisemployees and their well-being,” he said, adding that employersshould no longer be straddled with the cost and complexity ofhealth care.

“It makes no more sense for an airline to understand healthpolicy for the bulk of its workers than for a health facility tohave to supply all the air transportation for its employees,” hesaid.

Employers are also an important voice in the debate because 156million Americans get employer-paid health care, making it by farthe single-largest form of coverage.

Master said his company has tried various methods to controlcosts with little success, including high deductibles, narrownetworks of providers and wellness plans that emphasize preventivemedicine.

Insurers who are supposed to negotiate lower rates fromhospitals and doctors have failed, he added, and too many premiumdollars go to covering administrative costs. Only by having thefederal government set rates can the United States control costs ofdrugs, hospitals and other health services, he said.

“Insurance companies are not watching the store and don't haveincentives to hold down costs in the current system,” he said.

Faith Wildrick is a shipper at MCS Industries. She says thateven with insurance her family struggles with health costs.

Glad the boss is trying to make a difference

What's left of MCS in Pennsylvania is a spacious corporateoffice building housing administrative staff, designers and a giantdistribution center piled high with carton boxes from floor toceiling.

MCS pays an average of $1,260 per month for each employee'shealth care, up from $716 in 2009, the company said. In recentyears, the company has reduced out-of-pocket costs for employees bycovering most of their deductibles.

Medicare for All would require several new taxes to raise money,but Master said such a plan would mean savings for his company andemployees.

MCS employees largely support Master's attempt to fix the healthsystem even if they are not all on board with a Medicare for Allapproach, according to interviews with several workers inEaston.

“I think it's a good idea,” said Faith Wildrick, a shipper atMCS who has worked for the company 26 years. “If the othercountries are doing it and it is working for them, why can't itwork for us?”

Wildrick said that even with insurance her family struggles withhealth costs as her husband, Bill, a former MCS employee, dealswith liver disease and needs many diagnostic tests and prescriptionmedications. Their annual deductible has swung from $4,000 severalyears ago to $500 this year as the company has worked to loweremployees' out-of-pocket costs.

“I'm really glad someone is fighting for this and trying to makea difference,” said Wildrick.

Jessica Ehrhardt, the human resources manager at MCS, said theeffort to reduce employees' out-of-pocket health costs means thecompany must pay higher health costs. That results in less moneyfor salary increases and other benefits, she added.

Asked about Medicare for All, Ehrhardt said, “It's a drasticsolution, but something needs to happen.”

For too long, Master said, the push for a single-payer healthsystem has been about ideology.

“The movement has been about making health care a human rightand that we have a right to universal health care,” he said. “WhatI am saying is this is prudent for our economy and am trying tomake the business and economic case.”

Kaiser Health News isa nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is aneditorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation,which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Read more: 

• CBO: Medicare for All a 'majorundertaking'
• Forget Medicare for All, Americans want help withhealth care expenses
• Sanders's Medicare for All: Too radical forAmericans?