Great, if not for the healthcare and retirement savings being tied to employment. Having left a role after only 4 months my SO is not happy with so many changes.

Getting rid of healthcare and retirement savings being tied to employment is good for a variety of reasons - this is just one of them.

In fact, I'm not sure why anyone would want to keep them tied to employment.

Employers like it for retention

I don't think even the employers like it. It costs a lot and it's a pain in the ass to even sign up for if you're a small company. To add an insult to an injury, costs go up every year like clockwork in a largely out-of-control fashion. I worked for several companies now which started from scratch. "Retention" was never a part of the conversation, but "pain in the ass" always was. I think employers provide health insurance simply because employees expect it, as well as to pay you less than they would have to pay you otherwise. It's tax advantaged on their end. If your accountant is any good, it can even be tax advantaged for single person LLCs. Most people don't know this, though. Why this is not tax deductible for "regular" people I have no idea. IMO it should either be tax deductible for everyone, or no one. To have this in-between situation is idiotic.

That's not really the employers problem. I'm surprised more companies don't do this, at least in America where there seems little legislation in the way.

In one of Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the US Army in WW II, some general is quoted as remarking that under WW II rules, Robert E. Lee and some other prominent general--Grant or Sherman would probably qualify for the example--would have been removed from command and sent off to training duties.