There wasn't much to model. Complex health insurance systems were in their infancy during that period. People would sometimes pre-pay a local hospital to reduce costs, etc.
The employer-sponsored model of the US wasn't that bad during the 1940s, but I was clearly obsolete by the 1960s. What keeps it alive, ironically, may be Medicare: it removed the most expensive pool of patients (seniors) from the risk pool. This staved off the government needing to come in and heavily subsidize private insurance and set up nation-wide care provider networks.
Countries with private insurance industries that didn't bifurcate the risk pool in this manner ultimately did a better job of controlling costs for everyone
Medicare itself is a bit of compromise: it was suppose to be for everyone, but it ultimately just became for seniors. And while Medicare for All is back in the zeitgeist today, it was a consistent policy plank until the 80s, with the more conservative position being an approach where private companies would just sell medicare coverage (effectively creating a system like Switzerland or Germany, minus the public care providers).
The employer-sponsored model of the US wasn't that bad during the 1940s, but I was clearly obsolete by the 1960s. What keeps it alive, ironically, may be Medicare: it removed the most expensive pool of patients (seniors) from the risk pool. This staved off the government needing to come in and heavily subsidize private insurance and set up nation-wide care provider networks.
Countries with private insurance industries that didn't bifurcate the risk pool in this manner ultimately did a better job of controlling costs for everyone
Medicare itself is a bit of compromise: it was suppose to be for everyone, but it ultimately just became for seniors. And while Medicare for All is back in the zeitgeist today, it was a consistent policy plank until the 80s, with the more conservative position being an approach where private companies would just sell medicare coverage (effectively creating a system like Switzerland or Germany, minus the public care providers).