Also, tying health insurance to employment means that workers considering switching jobs have to weigh changing health policies, and possibly, losing their doctors. The fact that individuals are constantly switching jobs (and thus plans) means that insurers have a lot less interest in their clients’ long-term health.
When employers are buying health coverage, they control the type of coverage being offered, and thus workers’ choices are restricted to the one plan or maybe a handful of plans picked by the employer. If they choose to decline the coverage and look for plans on their own, they lose tax-advantaged status, making it cost-prohibitive in most cases.
A world in which employers purchase health insurance is a world in which companies such as Hobby Lobby can cite religious objections to paying for certain forms of contraception.
In an alternate world that ended the discrimination in the tax code against individuals purchasing insurance on their own, women would be earning more and free to take their health care dollars with them and purchase whatever coverage best met their health care needs.
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