It was started by private enterprise during WWII to attract good workers.
With millions in the military, civilians were in short supply.
Perhaps you've heard of Rosie ...?
I’ve thought about this a lot. Not tying it to employment means that losing one’s job doesn’t automatically mean losing coverage.
I do think that there should be a focus on insuring to cover large expenses, and catastrophe, like cancer, illness, etc., but paying out of pocket for office visits. Health Savings Account type do this, but there should be a more focus on this.
However, I’m not sure how we could legislate this sort of thing.
Benefit bidding war for hiring employees.
And since it is from employers there is a big incentive to “control costs” by abstractly imposing byzantine rules and procedures with the net effect of less coverage.
Never heard of health insurance until I had to sign a labor contract with it in the early 60s!
Before that it was everyone pays their own way!!!
Well, for starters, not everyone can buy private insurance. Insurance companies won’t insure those with high risk factors unless compelled to do so via group agreements. My wife isn’t able to purchase private insurance because she has two clotting disorders, Factor V Leiden and Prothombrin 20210 both of which are likely to have been misspelled here.
Even if that weren’t the case, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I wouldn’t even consider a job without health insurance, and I’m sure I’m far from alone.
And I also think that having health insurance provided for you by your employer, or by your government is ripe for disaster. If it goes horribly wrong (which it will) then maybe people will say, "No more entitlement programs! I won't be a slave to your do-gooder schemes any more. I'll put my own money down for the things I want, thank you very much."
yeah, and how would you institute it? you think businesses would say “you’re all switching to private insurance, here’s a giant raise to make up for it?” no way. they’d add it to their bottom line. a huge reason i took my job, and the reason i keep it is the benefits. if it weren’t for them i’d be gone.
i agree that no business should be forced to offer insurance, but there’s no reason why it can’t be an incentive.
Fully paid health care is a factor in my choice of employment. It is a perk, like a company car, that keeps my employer from loosing me to competition. Simple Supply and Demand.
My insurance isn’t “given” to me by my employer - I buy it.
I do appreciate the purchasing power of being one over 10,000 workers in the purchasing pool, though!
Yes, a totally portable, consumer-driven system is the way to go. Would make job transitions easier and eliminate this “joblock” problem that Pelosi was bitching about a few days ago.
Ping
However, I find it curious that this issue is on the forefront today and suspect that it is just a part of the continued assault on the private sector. If this long standing practice changes who will benefit? Certainly not the employee and definitely not the employer, only the goverment will come out ahead. If everyone buys their own insurance the employers will need to compensate the employees for the value of the lost benefit in their wages. That increased pay will be taxed as part of both the employees and employers contribution to payroll tax. Essentially this leaves the employee with less after tax dollars then he needs and the employer with higher after tax expenses. The government will once again take more cash out of the private sector.
Now the employee buys his own policy with his remaining after tax cash at a price which may or may not be negotiated for him through a group.
Under this system the advocates will say he gets to keep this policy even if he loses his job. The reality is if he has no job he can't pay for it and will lose it.
Netxt, the liberals will deamnd employers pay or electric bill or buy us a car or ensure we have shoes.
Employers do what they should and that is pay us.
RE: “Along with rent-control, withholding, and the currently-structured United Nations, employer-given healthcare is something that Franklin Delano Roosevelt started, and to solve real-problems without giving the government absolute control must be solved.”
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My long deceased parents ranted against FDR for years, having gone through the Depression and so many years of his ‘rule.’ They always had a big problem with the employer-provided healthcare, Medicare, Social Security — you name it. Their own parents did just fine, as immigrants from Europe but who WERE skilled, raising several children with no help from anyone else, least of all the dollars of other taxpayers.
If I had a buck for every time I heard one of my parents bash FDR I’d be a millionaire — they detested him and all of his policies — oh, and the UNIONS incurred their wrath, too, big time!