[tdb7893]

You can get healthcare outside of employers and it's incredibly expensive. The cost of private healthcare (either employer sponsored or not) is what is responsible for what the article is talking about, it's certainly not just employer provided plans. Are you saying that if employers didn't provide health insurance that it would help the situation somehow?

[Ajedi32]

Yes. Employers get huge tax incentives for providing insurance, while individuals don't. This ensures that the only economical way to buy health insurance is through an employer, which means you are not free to change plans without changing employers (or change employers without changing plans).

[mminer237]

The only tax incentive for employers is deducting it as a business expense. I.e., paying with pre-tax income. Individuals can also do that if self-employed.

Individuals are the one with huge tax benefits under the ACA. Last year, the government paid 73% of my health insurance premiums as a tax credit.

[ajmurmann]

"if self-employed" is a big if here

[Ajedi32]

Yeah and to be more precise the problem isn't really that individuals don't get tax incentives for buying their own plan, it's that employers don't get tax incentives for giving individuals money to buy their own plans, only for buying a plan for them.

So even if you could get a tax break for buying your own health insurance, you'd still have to give up a bunch of free money from your employer in order to take advantage of that, which isn't realistic.

[ajmurmann]

The article says that lower mobility is caused by insurance being coupled to your employer. Yes, you can get health insurance on your own but there are a lot of issues with quitting and getting your own insurance or even moving to a different employer. If you get your own insurance you don't get the same tax breaks employers get. They also have not bargaining power with the insurance. Your new insurance, at your new employer might not have your current doctor covered. There is so much at stake with changing health insurance that it's quite frankly a little scary. Nobody wants to risk accidentally not having coverage for a few weeks because you filled in some form wrong. So it's easiest to just stay at your employer who carries most of the cost and you keep what you have already.