adistantfire: Baby, How'd We Ever Get This Way?: The History Of Health Care In The United States … sort of

It all started with a guy named Gavrilo Princip who assisnated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Ferdinand's wife in 1914.
This eventually kicked off World War I and ended in a armistice that really, really punished Germany. The conditions of the armistice were so bad that the German people looked to Aldoph Hitler to get them out of their predicament.
Hitler kicked off World War II.
In the United States, we began mobilization, which took alot of men out of the labor market. The government also put a cap on wages. How were businesses to attract workers from an ever shrinking labor pool? Well, fringe benefits were not capped so offering health insurance was part of the solution. And labor was so scarce some employers overlooked pre-existing conditions. As a matter of fact some, but not all workers, were classified 4F which designated them as unfit for military service.
Gavrilo, you bastard see what you started. Oh, ironically, Germany has mandatory employer funded health care and has had some kind of health care regulations since 1883.

adistantfire