> Why is employment and healthcare intermingled at all in the US? It has caused nothing but problems, hurts competition ("free market" where you cannot pick you

> Why is employment and healthcare intermingled at all in the US? It has caused nothing but problems, hurts competition ("free market" where you cannot pick your own insurance provider), hurts people, and adds needless complexity to an already needlessly complex system. In the WWII era, the federal government handed down strict wage controls. Companies still had to compete with one another for workers, but they couldn't offer to pay more. So companies looked for other things they could offer. Health care, and health insurance, was one such. In at least one case this wound up taking over the whole business. Kaiser Permanente used to be an aluminum and shipbuilding concern with a sideline in healthcare to provide for its many workers.