[dylan604]

You can buy health insurance on your own. It's just not going to be subsidized by your employer. If you thought your health care premiums through work were high, just wait until you see how much more it goes up with out the employer contribution. Easily double would be a first guess.

[MereInterest]

It is also higher due to having a poorer negotiating platform. When an employer threatens to have hundreds to thousands of workers switch coverage, it can decrease the price. When an individual threatens to switch, the result is a shrug. Scaling this up is a good reason to support a single-payer system.