Companies NEVER gave health insurance to their employees, until right after WW II, when UNIONS used it to blackmail them. It started out in a small way and the unions pressed and pressed and and garroted companies to make the FREE or almost free health insurance larger and larger.
When people get something for nothing, or very little, they tend to misuse and abuse it. That IS what has happened to not only health insurance, but to all medical care in general.
There are a LOT of self employed/entrepreneurs who must pay for their own health insurance and because of the deals and the money big companies pay, these people are getting the fuzzy end of the stick and worse. And all medical costs keep escalating, to boot.
The president's proposal ( which sadly, he probably won't get ), is a TAX DEDUCTION; not, as you claim, a "redistribution of wealth". And its purpose is to get everyone to be more responsible for their own lives and their own health insurance and the costs of it. There is nothing, NOTHING, less Marxist and more CONSERVATIVE, than this plan!
When people get something for nothing, or very little, they tend to misuse and abuse it. That IS what has happened to not only health insurance, but to all medical care in general.
First, healthcare is not just another commodity to be bartered with, because you, I, and everyone else can die without it. It's not like buying or selling a bag of cookies, or signing up for the services of a masseuse. It is not a barter item. It is your life, in case you didn't know that. So, you would prefer it as it was before where everyone had to sink or swim to get healthcare, rich, poor, or otherwise. Healthcare as part of employee benefits has been around for many years now, and is paid for as part of the benefit/salary package that was offered to you or I when we were hired. We could accept or reject that package at that time. Once hired, it becomes part of what you are being paid, how you are being compensated for the work you do. It is factored in to the total costs of your salary for which you earn by working hard for your employer to earn that salary and the benefit package. You are not getting a benefit for little or nothing. You are working for it your whole life. If you don't like the benefits YOU accrue by being a self-employed entrepreneur, then go get a job at a company. It's your choice to be self-employed and accept the benefits and negative aspects of doing so, just as it is the choice of others to work for small or big companies, and accept their salary offer and benefit package as stated to them. You've got a real chip on your shoulder that someone else might be getting something you aren't, but that's because you chose your own career. Live with it. You probably make more than a lot of people do who work for companies, and can afford to pay for your own health insurance. Just don't foist your choices off on others who made different choices than yours. Don't blame them or agree that their benefits should be ripped off to facilitate other people getting health care plans who may not have worked as hard to be able to afford a good health insurance plan. It's income redistribution no matter how you try to paint it otherwise.
I believe IBM gave their employees health care from the beginning, but I'm not sure. They never had unions, but they truly were like a family more than a business with their employees, until the 80s.