The employer-based health insurance system: Mistake or cornerstone?

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

For decades, health policy analysts have voiced their disdain for employer-based health insurance. In 1961, Herman and Anne Somers referred to the system as the "'shotgun' marriage of medical care and industrial relations" (Somers and Somers 1961, 227). Critics routinely belittle job-based coverage as an unfortunate historical accident, the by-product of shortlived wartime wage and price controls that moved compensation toward such benefits (Hyman and Hall 2001). Analysts today see the dismantling of this illogical, inefficient institution as an essential step toward the development of universal, equitable health insurance in the United States (Fuchs 1994).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPolicy Challenges in Modern Health Care
PublisherRutgers University Press
Pages37-52
Number of pages16
Volume9780813541099
ISBN (Electronic)9780813541099
ISBN (Print)0813535778, 9780813535777
StatePublished - 2005

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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