[kingTug]

Health insurance tied to employment is the second biggest scam in American history after Reaganomics. It forces people to stay in crappy jobs to maintain coverage and fucks with collective bargaining rights.

We need universal, single payer healthcare.

[boc]

It started as a reaction to a market distortion during/after WWII. There was a government-imposed salary cap during the war (Stabilization Act of 1942), so private companies had to get creative to attract talent. One thing that stuck was offering additional health insurance to employees. The rest is history.

Further reading: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-obamaca...

[Apocryphon]

If universal healthcare was adopted during the Truman administration, wonder what employers would move on to as their major bargaining chip to woo talent.

[BeetleB]

> Health insurance tied to employment is the second biggest scam in American history after Reaganomics.

And yet, sadly, even the "liberals" push for tying it to employment.

[orangecat]

Mostly the liberals. In 2008 Mitt Romney pushed for ending the favorable tax treatment of employer-based plans (https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2...), which was instantly attacked by the left for "taking away your insurance". Then the ACA set up the marketplace for individual plans which was good, but also inexplicably added employer mandates.

[nerdponx]

It's the same problem as ending subsidies for higher education and tax deduction of mortgages. In the long run it might be the right thing to do, but in the short term, without offsetting factors, it would cause measurable harm beyond what we should be comfortable tolerating.