[heavyset_go]

Take a look at the individual market and what is offered on it. If you want a comparable plan to an employer's group policy, you will be paying close to a grand a month in premiums for just yourself alone, and you will have yearly deductibles to the tune of thousands (sometimes tens of thousands for a family) dollars.

Without increases in compensation, workers will suddenly have thousands of dollars in new yearly expenses just to maintain coverage, and many will be forced to go without coverage at all.

This wouldn't be a problem, though, if employer-provided healthcare was replaced with a universal healthcare system that most first world nations have had for ages.

[maxerickson]

So do you think replacing the insurance market is more or less likely when people think the 25% of their premiums that they pay are what their insurance costs?

I have pretty good insurance, when I started, a few weeks before the end of a year, some of the folks I was working with were bitching about how it didn't cover anything and was expensive (the employee premiums were tiny at the time and are still low).