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The origin of the tie between US employment and healthcare was during the Second World War when wage controls were put into place. Employers competed for worker
by nmhancoc 4y ago
The origin of the tie between US employment and healthcare was during the Second World War when wage controls were put into place. Employers competed for workers by adding benefits packages, which later became ossified and further entrenched with exemptions in the tax code.
- GauntletWizard 4y agoAnd it wasn't until the 90s that individually purchased health insurance become unviable for the average family. https://listwithclever.com/research/healthcare-costs-over-time/ https://listwithclever.com/research/healthcare-costs-over-ti...
- fellowniusmonk 4y agoI knew an individual named Ron Hillhouse, he sold life insurance and built a large insurance company in Texas twice. He sold it each time to a group in NY (MetLife each time if memory serves). He told me that his insight was that construction companies would have variable revenue and compensation requirements across TX building contracts (private vs government mostly) and to avoid discontent they would dump the difference into life insurance and other alternative compensation because as long as the take home paycheck was the same no one really complained about being put on lower compensation jobs. Not sure if that was a similar origin for health insurance but I've always assumed it was.