> It’s interesting that the U.S. picked an employer-driven model...

Health insurance, parental leave† and retirement are also employer-driven. This seems to be a US default that incidentally gives a lot of leverage to employers.

† Yes there are government mandated minimums, but when compared to other developed countries, substantive parental leave is largely left to the generosity of the employer

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bregma 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

You wrote "incidentally" but I think you meant "intentionally". There is no evidence it's a coincidence, but there is a great deal of evidence that it is not.

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nerpderp82 4 days ago | parent [-]

This drives a lot of the opposition to single payer insurance from the corporate world. They lose leverage as it would increase wages and labor mobility.

	▲	joquarky 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		One of the main reasons why annual raises have become so miniscule is because health insurance costs are rising significantly faster than inflation.

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fuzztester 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

why did it work out that way in the US?

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js2 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

During WWII there were wage freezes so employers started providing benefits:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-th...

> In 1942, with so many eligible workers diverted to military service, the nation was facing a severe labor shortage. Economists feared that businesses would keep raising salaries to compete for workers, and that inflation would spiral out of control as the country came out of the Depression. To prevent this, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9250, establishing the Office of Economic Stabilization.

> This froze wages. Businesses were not allowed to raise pay to attract workers.

> Businesses were smart, though, and instead they began to use benefits to compete. Specifically, to offer more, and more generous, health care insurance.

> Then, in 1943, the Internal Revenue Service decided that employer-based health insurance should be exempt from taxation. This made it cheaper to get health insurance through a job than by other means.

----

Hysterical raisins strikes again.

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BeFlatXIII 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Hysterical raisin?

	▲	js2 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sorry, just a silly misspelling of "historical reasons" I picked up once upon a time... http://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/html/H/hysterical-reasons.htm...
	▲	lazide 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I thought it was a play on ‘grapes of wrath’

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ToucanLoucan 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Once more the most rational economic system has to be shepherded away from spontaneously destroying itself

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4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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timeon 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Ideology.