But employers invented it. Useful fringe, good inducement to recruitment/retention for family men. Tax deductible to the employer, tax-free to the employee. Best thing since sliced bread. Almost.All fine except for the tax-free part. That keeps people tied to their employers, and is a thumb on the scale of the free market. I imagine there would be more small companies if not for the current(or rather, soon to go away!) health-insurance system.
Point taken. But it did its job as an inducement, and to a large extent, it still does.