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0 pointsmgkimsal9y ago0 comments

> Getting employers out of the business of all of the above is paramount and what businesses should be lobbying for.

Amen. I never quite understood what benefit (pardon the pun) it served, although I've got some idea of the origins of employer-provided health insurance.

The cynical part of me believes it's definitely a way for larger companies to hold more control over their employees, and they may lobby for this because it provides an extra advantage over smaller competitors.

I've known plenty of really sharp/talented folks whose talents may better serve the economy by taking those skills to other companies (sometimes in other parts of the country). "But I'll lose my health insurance" is almost always a primary reason why people've stayed in their job (however crappy it might be otherwise re: pay, commute, colleagues, boss, industry, etc). This seems like it's been a real drag on labor mobility for some time now.

I would have thought 'conservatives' would be all over a 'free market' where people make their own choices with their own money. They'll happily deride a "nanny-state" as fostering people who just want the govt to provide them with everything, but ... expecting people to need employers to provide access to basic services? Apparently there's no problem there whatsoever, and it doesn't even seem contradictory to many I talk to.

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5 comments · 5 top-level

heymijo9y ago

Employer-sponsored healthcare in the U.S. is an accident of history.

How we got to now: 1. Roosevelt chose to forego nationalizing healthcare when he introduced social security in the 30's, fearing it would doom both to failure.

2. The U.S. feared debilitating inflation during WWII. The legislature passed a bill to limit employers' ability to raise wages for workers who were battling for employees in a scarce labor pool.

3. Unintended consequences ensued. To attract workers, employers began to offer non-salary perks: employer-sponsored healthcare was one.

4. The economic and labor boom post-WWII entrenched employer-sponsored healthcare and has led us to where we are today.

matt40779y ago

The obvious reason, which might be too obvious, but just in case:

Employment serves as a convenient risk pool that is too hard to join based only on a wish to get insurance.

harshreality9y ago

The second half of _The Social Transformation of American Medicine_, by Paul Starr, covers a lot of the history of American healthcare in the WW1-to-1980 period. (There's an epub at mobilism.)

humanrebar9y ago

> what benefit... it served

Any regulation provides regulatory capture benefits to big players over small players, regardless of what the regulation is.

I'm not sure big business lobbyists were campaigning to stay in the health insurance business, but they weren't exactly campaigning to get out when all the players were at the trough back when the ACA passed.

Hopefully this is a start of a trend. Leaders like Buffet saying the baby tiger of "employer provided health insurance" has grown up to a maneater might help change some minds.

zip12349y ago

Strangely enough--I knew a lot of people that worked for the government for that reason.

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