Employer-sponsored health insurance: are employers good agents for their employees?

Employers in the United States provide many welfare-type benefits, such as life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, and pensions, to their employees. Employers can be viewed as performing an agency role in purchasing pension, health, and other welfare benefits for their employees. An exploration of their competence in this role as agents for their employees indicates that large employers are very helpful to their employees in this arena. They seem to contribute to individual employees' welfare by providing them with valued services in purchasing health insurance.