Employer-provided healthcare is an aberration created by government interference in the market.
> Employer-provided health insurance has its origin in a tax policy passed in 1943, which made insurance provided by employers tax free. At the time the United States was engaged in World War II and had enacted wage and price controls, preventing employers from competing for scarce labor using the normal mechanism of offering a higher salary. Instead, businesses used the availability of newly tax-subsidized healthcare as a means of differentiating themselves.
> The tax advantages were made even more attractive and fully codified in the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. Over the next few decades, the government's subsidization of employer-provided health insurance lead to the dominance of that model of healthcare delivery...[1]
So steps that got us here:
1. Enter into WWII
2. Enact price & wage controls
3. Create tax loophole for employer-provided plans
4. Enshrine loophole into the tax code
These are not market phenomena, since government intervention got us here.
It's dumb that we're here, but knowing the history suggests a possible solution.
What if the government was able to pass legislation banning employer healthcare? I imagine the issue of healthcare coverage would resolve very shortly thereafter.
> Employer-provided health insurance has its origin in a tax policy passed in 1943, which made insurance provided by employers tax free. At the time the United States was engaged in World War II and had enacted wage and price controls, preventing employers from competing for scarce labor using the normal mechanism of offering a higher salary. Instead, businesses used the availability of newly tax-subsidized healthcare as a means of differentiating themselves.
> The tax advantages were made even more attractive and fully codified in the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. Over the next few decades, the government's subsidization of employer-provided health insurance lead to the dominance of that model of healthcare delivery...[1]
So steps that got us here:
1. Enter into WWII
2. Enact price & wage controls
3. Create tax loophole for employer-provided plans
4. Enshrine loophole into the tax code
These are not market phenomena, since government intervention got us here.
[1] https://mises.org/library/whats-really-wrong-healthcare-indu...