Prompt Cast
The History of Employer-Based Health Insurance in the US
TLDR The US's reliance on employer-based health insurance can be traced back to the early 1900s when the country transitioned to an industrial society. The system was improvised as a solution to temporary problems, such as wage price controls during World War II, and faced opposition from various groups, leading to the development of the expensive and confusing healthcare system we have today.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Millions of people lost their jobs and employer-sponsored health coverage during the pandemic, leading to questions about why the US relies on employer-based health insurance and how the country ended up with this system in the first place.
06:16
The US transitioned from an agrarian society to an industrial one in the early 1900s, leading to the need for a solution to provide financial support for workers who were injured on the job, which Germany had already implemented through compulsory health insurance.
11:24
Private medical insurance in the US began with Blue Cross, which started as a program to prepay for hospital care and was initially sold to employer groups, but doctors were initially resistant to the idea of third-party payment and the American Medical Association publicly denounced Roosevelt's health insurance plan.
16:30
During World War II, the US government implemented wage and price controls, which led employers to offer health insurance as a benefit to attract workers, and the IRS decided not to tax this new employee-sponsored health insurance, leading to the development of employer-sponsored insurance.
21:56
Employer-sponsored health insurance was improvised as a solution to a temporary problem, wage price controls, and after World War II, President Roosevelt and later President Truman saw national health insurance as their mission and key part of their presidencies, while in Europe, countries implemented universal health insurance systems to provide social services to their citizens after the war.
27:48
President Truman proposed national health insurance as a rallying cry during his 1948 election campaign, recognizing the need to address the struggle of the middle class to pay for healthcare, but faced opposition from American industries, unions, and Congress.
32:46
Despite facing opposition from Southern Democrats and being labeled as a communist idea, President Truman's revised bill for universal health insurance was still pushed forward, with the American Medical Association leading a massive campaign to defeat it.
37:57
President Truman's revised bill for universal health insurance was defeated by the American Medical Association's massive advertising campaign and lack of support in Congress, leading to President Eisenhower implementing a private health insurance system as an alternative to socialized medicine.
43:30
The Eisenhower administration locked the employer-based health insurance system into place by making employer contributions tax-free, which aligned with a larger cultural shift led by the Republican Party to emphasize the private sector as the pathway to success and exclude certain groups from accessing insurance.
48:40
The passage of Medicare in 1965 was a significant step in expanding healthcare coverage in the United States, but it was only a piecemeal solution that left many gaps in coverage and contributed to the development of the expensive and confusing healthcare system we have today.
Categories:
History
Society & Culture
