Half of all Americans currently receive their health insurance coverage from their employer. That figure has declined from approximately two-thirds back in 2000. For most of U.S. history, health insurance was divorced from work. In fact, health insurance really didn’t exist at all, except for some companies that began selling accident insurance in the mid-19th century. Interestingly, it was Germany under the Iron Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck that was the first modern example of a nation introducing the concept of employer-based medical coverage in the 1880s.The model only really gained traction in the United States during World War II when government-enforced wage and price controls restricted the ability of businesses to increase employee pay. In a tight labor market, employers began
