what we discover is that the fast food industry has been indirectly subsidised by health insurance premiums. it is these premiums paid by people who are nothing to do with the food business that generate fast food industry profits.
pre-obamacare, here's how it worked.
folks like papa john and denny didn't pay employee health insurance. instead, they paid minimum wages which were inadequate for employees to get healthcare coverage.
when those employees were sick, they went to hospital.
hospitals are obliged to offer emergency treatment, regardless of payment. so these folks' unpaid medical expenses have been being passed on to people who pay health insurance, driving up premiums.
or put another way, the fast food industry has been systematically robbing society of the cost of healthcare for its employees.
papa john lives in a huge house essentially funded not through corporate profits but by people paying excessive insurance premiums to cover the medical costs incurred by his staff. costs that should have been borne by papa john.
a great example of a system that had gone wrong.
no wonder those wealthy guys all voted republican. of course they want to shift their costs onto others. they no longer can.
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