Accidents Of History Created U.S. Health System

[phantom power]

Another great NPR program. It reminded me of a related question I've been pondering: how did other countries get universal/govt-funded health care? What's their history?

Soon, Blue Cross coverage was available in almost every state, though not many people bought in. The modern system of getting benefits through a job required another catalyst: World War II. Thomasson says that if the Great Depression inadvertently inspired the spread of employer-based health insurance, World War II accidentally spread the idea everywhere.

"The war economy is an entirely different ballgame," Thomasson says. The government rationed goods even as factories ramped up production and needed to attract workers. Factory owners needed a way to lure employees. She explains that the owners turned to fringe benefits, offering more and more generous health plans.

The next big step in the evolution of health care was also an accident. In 1943, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that employer-based health care should be tax free. A second law, in 1954, made the tax advantages even more attractive.

Thomasson cites the huge impact of those measures on plan participation. "You start from 9 percent of the population in 1940 to 63 percent in 1953," she says. "Everybody starts getting in on it. It just grows by gangbusters. By the 1960s, 70 percent is covered by some kind of private, voluntary health insurance plan."

Read/Listen more here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114045132

[damntexdem]

1. About as accidental as a drunk-driving crash.

May have been accidental, but there was plenty of negligence.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. I expect most other countries got it much the same as Britain did -

when WW2 ended and they had massive rebuilding to do, it turned out they found that something like 65% of the population was already covered by the government because of the mobilization - huge numbers were in the military or working for the government or were dependents of those who were. It was simple to expand the coverage to everybody and it was a cost-saving measure when so many resources had to go to rebuilding. Not to mention, with the successful prosecution of the war people believed that the government could get things right.

[phantom power]

3. Interesting that WWII was instrumental in both cases -- ours and theirs.

Also interesting that health insurance as an employment benefit was an adaptation to a (wartime) command economy -- a feature of the dreaded communism that is currently being used as part of the FUD campaign against universal health care.