Health Affairs, 25, no. 6 (2006): 1537 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.25.6.1537 © 2006 by Project HOPE	New Online   Senate Health Reform Bill   Rewarding Providers   Public Option Policy Brief   Health Reform & Abortion   Delivery System Reform

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Forum On Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

For Americans in the post–World War II era, prosperity and security took different forms: a house in the suburbs, ready availability of consumer goods, a steady job, and—for a rapidly increasing proportion of workers—employment-based health insurance. By 1963, Alain Enthoven and Victor Fuchs recount, 77 percent of Americans had hospital insurance, more than half had coverage for general medical expenses, and almost one-fourth had major medical insurance.

As employer-based insurance continued to prosper, earning a decent living in someone else’s employ and having health insurance became virtually synonymous. Thus, despite serious signs of strain on the employer-based system since the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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