[lotsofpulp]

You can go to healthcare.gov and pick the same plans, many millions of people do it and price shop every year.

You can tell your employer you don’t want to pay for the employer subsidized plan, but then you lose access to the employer subsidy and ability to pay premiums with pre tax income.

[dml2135]

They are not the same plans. Most employer plans are not available to the individual market. The marketplace plans often have vastly reduced networks, higher premiums, higher deductibles, etc.

[lotsofpulp]

Most are, as ACA compliant plans have metal levels that are based on the expected annual costs that the plan covers.

A silver plan an employer subsidizes is similar to a silver plan from healthcare.gov (expect plan to pay 70% and insured to pay 30%).

https://www.healthcare.gov/choose-a-plan/plans-categories/

[dml2135]

But that means nothing if you can't find a doctor -- these plans have paltry networks.

They are better than nothing if you qualify for a subsidy, but if you don't and you live in a HCOL area (which the subsidies are not adjusted for) you are pretty much screwed.

[lotsofpulp]

They sell the same networks in my experience (west and northeast coast).

The MCOs are not carving out different networks for specific employers. You buy a bronze PPO from United Health directly, or your employer does, it’s going to be all the same providers. If you get gold, then the deductibles/copay will be less.

The networks used to be different when HMOs were in vogue, but if your employer is only giving you an HMO option, you need to find a different employer. PPOs are the only sensible option (except maybe Kaiser on the west coast, but even they sell PPOs, just costs more to see a non Kaiser provider).

[dml2135]

This was not my experience on the NY exchange but that was several years ago at this point. So I guess it's possible that things improved.

[supertrope]

Paying 25K a year in health insurance premiums instead of 2.5K is not a realistic choice for most people. That employer subsidy is a massive difference.

[throwaway173738]

My employer subsidizes my plan to the tune of 2/3 of the list price. Are you seriously suggesting I should pay 3x as much so I can shop around? This is by law too that they have to offer insurance.