For awhile now, I’ve been wondering what the logical basis was for our current barbaric employer-based healthcare system, under which if you don’t work for a company, you can’t get affordable insurance. No other industrialized country has such a ludicrous type of system, presumably because it is the right of every individual in civilized society to be able to get the healthcare that they need, irregardless of who they work for or what kind of work they do. Can you only get auto insurance if you work for a big company? How about life insurance?

In truth, there really is no logical basis for an employer-based healthcare system. Apparently, the system is a relic of history, as described in this article: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance Worth Saving? from the NY Times, which I just came across online.

The author explains:

“Our employment-based system was not the product of a carefully designed health policy. It was a byproduct of evading wage controls during World War II. At the time it was thought that, as the nation’s drafted military personnel risked their limbs and life on foreign battlefields at low, tightly controlled pay, those who stayed behind should have their wages controlled as well.

But with the wink of the eye with which Congress routinely puts loopholes into the tax laws or regulations it imposes, the wage controls imposed in World War II did not extend to fringe benefits. And thus, employer-paid fringe benefits, including employment-based health insurance, were born. “

So Is Employer-Based Health Insurance Worth Saving? As a self-employed person, I’m of course biased, but I can think of few other aspects of US society that are as reprehensible as linking healthcare to employment and unfortunately Obama’s plan does little to nothing to actually improve upon this situation. Even from an economic perspective, a healthier society will obviously produce a better economy, so wouldn’t it be prudent for the government to invest as much as possible to ensure quality healthcare for every citizen irregardless of where they work? The payback for a healthier society would be enormous. Imagine if the government took $5 trillion, and instead of investing it in worthless Wall Street securities that have no social benefit, put the money into reforming healthcare.