ABSTRACT
Private health insurance markets have essentially been crowded out, on one side by the tax subsidy to employer-provided health insurance and on the other side by widespread governmental health insurance programs. The life insurance market operates in a commercial world with a large variety of products, features, and options, beginning with simple term insurance of various amounts, and a wide variety of insurance options that include "savings" aspects, the original product known as "whole life insurance," now with many variants. And life insurance now comes blended with combinations of life insurance, long-term care insurance, retirement annuities, and many other viable options for consumers. The alternate-universe economy would also have fewer labor-relations problems, fewer strikes by workers, and less loss to the economy from these labor issues. Finally, the most important differences between the actual "universe" and the alternative universe without the tax subsidy would be the size of the health care economy and the rate of growth over time.
