Sick healthcare system

Re “Rising Premiums Threaten Job-Based Health Coverage,” Sept. 15

The article paints a bleak picture of the shift of healthcare costs and risks onto the backs of workers and the impending meltdown of the whole system. It’s sad to read that a “deterioration ... of the backbone of healthcare in this country” is a “very exciting” trend for insurance brokers. Offering health benefits as a “perk” is ridiculous. Unions fought an uphill battle for many years to establish health coverage for workers, along with other “perks” such as overtime pay, safety protections and weekends off.

HANK LEWIS

International Brotherhood

of Electrical Workers Local 639

San Luis Obispo