Persistent high prices amid bosses’ attacks on the unions have led to stagnating and declining wages, making it increasingly difficult for working-class households to make ends meet. One key issue is the huge cost of health coverage, which is putting decent care out of reach for millions of working people. Hospital bosses and pharmaceutical and insurance conglomerates are determined to maximize their profits at the expense of working people.
“Doctors’ offices are charging patients 10 times more by claiming to be hospitals,” the Washington Post reported Oct. 24, describing hospital bosses’ more profitable billing practices. U.S. hospitals have bought up thousands of doctor’s offices to expand their bottom line. Nearly half of all physicians have now been incorporated into this system. So medical bills many patients receive today include hospital-facility fees, meaning they are much higher, even though none of their procedures ever happened in a hospital.
“More than 60% of radiation treatments,” the paper said, were “at an average cost of $1,017, compared with $218 in a doctor’s office.” In defense of this practice, American Hospital Association spokesperson Jason Kleinman cut to the chase, telling the Post these charges are essential for hospitals to maintain their profits.
Working-class families are also paying much more for health insurance coverage this year. The average price to cover your family through an employer is now $7,471 a year, up 9% from 2025. The cost of these workplace plans have risen regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans dominate Washington. They have quadrupled over the past four decades.
More and more workers pay an average annual deductible of nearly $2,000, or in some cases more, before their insurance policy covers anything. As a result, the number of people who said they had delayed or skipped medical care because of these upfront expenses rose to 50% this year.
Millions of workers were forced to drop coverage under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, as its insurance premiums jumped 26% this year. Another hike of 13% is projected for 2027.
Higher prices slam workers’ wages
Wages rose at the slowest pace in over five years in the third quarter this year. For the seventh consecutive month, workers’ wages have fallen further behind the government’s reported inflation figures.
The share of “economic output” paid to workers in the form of wages or benefits fell to 53% in the third quarter, the lowest level since this data was first compiled 80 years ago. The rest of this income produced through the labor of the working class is instead taken by the capitalist class in the form of profits.
Despite growing claims by the big-business media that there is “robust hiring,” saying 165,000 new jobs were supposedly created in October and unemployment dropped slightly to 4.1%, the fact of the matter is it’s harder for workers to get and keep decent jobs. Over the past decade bosses have eliminated nearly a quarter million industrial jobs.
A college degree doesn’t get you hired
The big business press is full of articles about how those in the working class must have a college degree to get a job. But many young people, including those who hoped things would be better if they went to college, are finding this is a big lie. After graduating with a degree in English from Texas State, Daniel Erby, 23, who lives in Austin, Texas, applied for hundreds of clerical jobs without getting hired. He finally got a job as a barista at Starbucks, he told the New York Times.
Others are finding that getting a job today involves passing a test generated by artificial intelligence. “A 22-year-old with an undergraduate degree in biology has applied for 511 jobs,” the paper reported. “She was recently rejected from a role at Whole Foods after being ‘interviewed’ by a chatbot named Sage.”
The rulers’ drive to boost profits is also adversely affecting millions of older workers. About 19 million of their households don’t have enough money each month to meet their basic needs, reported MarketWatch. The percentage of workers 65 and older living in what the government defines as “poverty” — a paltry $15,960 a year for a single person — increased to 15.4% in 2025.
Don’t worry, some in the U.S. — the capitalist rulers and their upper-middle-class hangers-on — are finding life good! “The Superrich Are Buying $100 Million Mansions Just to Tear Them Down,” an Oct. 21 Wall Street Journal article said.
Airline companies seeking to maximize their profits are laser focused on reaching those willing to pay more to travel in luxury. Singapore Airlines, for example, says it’s now offering the “biggest double bed in the skies,” the Financial Times reported. It’s part of a $1.6 billion upgrade of its premium cabins. Other airlines are trying to do the same. Meanwhile, airfares working people pay rose 22.4% over the past year.