Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker...
by erik_seaberg on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @07:32PM
(#20945914)
Also adverse selection. Healthy people are tempted to only pay for catastrophic or no coverage, so a lot of individual policy buyers are sicker than the average employee in a group policy (because large companies cover everyone).
Ironically, it came about because of wage freezes imposed by the government during WW2. Employers had to find something to offer to attract workers, and employer-paid insurance did the trick.
The trap, though, was that employer paid insurance was paid with pre-tax dollars, while if you bought it yourself you'd pay in post-tax dollars, making it far more expensive.