<story><title>Uber Drivers Are Contractors, Not Employees, Labor Board Says</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/business/economy/nlrb-uber-drivers-contractors.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TheRealDunkirk</author><text>1. Deregulate the health insurance market so you can sell across state lines.
2. Employers start giving their employees the money they pay on their behalf.
3. People shop for the health insurance they want&amp;#x2F;need.&lt;p&gt;In a year, every other advertisement on TV would be for health insurance, like it is with car insurance now.</text></item><item><author>dcosson</author><text>It’s sad that the idea of people being able to get by and live a comfortable life without the benefits from a full time job is so far outside the Overton window that it’s not even mentioned in these conversations.&lt;p&gt;That seems like such an obviously better outcome for everyone - what if we got rid of healthcare benefits and other types of favorable tax treatment that are tied to full time employment so that everyone is in the same boat? Then all contractors, including Uber and Lyft drivers could keep the freedom and flexibility of being contractors (which anecdotally, I have talked to a lot of drivers who really like this aspect of it), but also not struggle as much to get by?&lt;p&gt;(Universal healthcare is one path towards this world but not necessarily the only one, I think even the current healthcare system we have would work a lot better if premiums weren’t paid pre-tax by employers and people had actual choice and paid for their care with real money).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>timoth3y</author><text>&amp;gt; 1. Deregulate the health insurance market so you can sell across state lines.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve always found this suggestion a bit disingenuous.&lt;p&gt;First, there is no federal law that bans insurance from being sold across state lines. What they really mean (but can&amp;#x27;t say because it is not politically appealing) is &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t allow states to regulate insurance sold in their state.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;State boards regulate insurance. They seem to do it well. No insurance companies failed during the 2009 financial crisis and the ones that came close (looking at you AIG) did so because of their activities and investments that fell outside of the state regulations.&lt;p&gt;Not allowing states to regulate insurance would reduce costs, but not for the reason you think. The cost of getting a product approved in a given market is predictable and a very small part of the cost of doing business.&lt;p&gt;By taking this right away from the individual states, we could see a race to the bottom where all insurance companies would incorporate in whatever state offered the lowest reserve requirements and loosest oversight. This would decrease the cost of policies and increase the profitability of the insurance companies.&lt;p&gt;It would be great until there was a hard year and the insurance companies would have the be bailed out by the taxpayers.&lt;p&gt;State regulation of insurance companies is a great thing. The states keep each other in line and they keep the industry solvent.&lt;p&gt;Edit: 
BTW, auto insurance is also regulated on the state-level.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber Drivers Are Contractors, Not Employees, Labor Board Says</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/business/economy/nlrb-uber-drivers-contractors.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>TheRealDunkirk</author><text>1. Deregulate the health insurance market so you can sell across state lines.
2. Employers start giving their employees the money they pay on their behalf.
3. People shop for the health insurance they want&amp;#x2F;need.&lt;p&gt;In a year, every other advertisement on TV would be for health insurance, like it is with car insurance now.</text></item><item><author>dcosson</author><text>It’s sad that the idea of people being able to get by and live a comfortable life without the benefits from a full time job is so far outside the Overton window that it’s not even mentioned in these conversations.&lt;p&gt;That seems like such an obviously better outcome for everyone - what if we got rid of healthcare benefits and other types of favorable tax treatment that are tied to full time employment so that everyone is in the same boat? Then all contractors, including Uber and Lyft drivers could keep the freedom and flexibility of being contractors (which anecdotally, I have talked to a lot of drivers who really like this aspect of it), but also not struggle as much to get by?&lt;p&gt;(Universal healthcare is one path towards this world but not necessarily the only one, I think even the current healthcare system we have would work a lot better if premiums weren’t paid pre-tax by employers and people had actual choice and paid for their care with real money).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fooey</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s already legal in several states, but no insurance companies took them up on it.&lt;p&gt;Trump additionally signed an executive order to setup a national way to do it, but it died off as a policy proposal because the insurance companies aren&amp;#x27;t interested&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncsl.org&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;health&amp;#x2F;out-of-state-health-insurance-purchases.aspx&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ncsl.org&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;health&amp;#x2F;out-of-state-health-insu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>