Delinking Health insurance and employment?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Last night Ted Cruz said he would de-link health insurance and employment. That people would be allowed to buy health insurance across state lines and expand health savings accounts. This would mean you keep health insurance after losing a job and make it personal, portable, and affordable; and keep the government out.

Interesting. I'm not for it, I'm liberal enough to want socialized medicine. However I am curious enough to be willing to try it for say a 3-4 year stint (a presidency) and allow healthcare to become completely capitalistic. No other country has tried this and it would be an interesting experiment if health care can be completely privitized and life can be given a $ value.

We've got single payer in the US called Medicare and no one (conservative and liberal seniors) appears to be willing to give it up and go to private health insurance. So my question is why are people fighting socialized healthcare but then refuse to give it up once they have it?

Second are most people covered by employer provided insurance currently. What percentage of the population is willing to give it up and move to completely self insuring? Would people go for it?

Is it just an expansion of Obamacare in the sense that we will de-link employer provided health insurance, require people buy insurance, and just let the market set the prices?

[Nutria]

We've got single payer in the US called Medicare and no one (conservative and liberal seniors) appears to be willing to give it up and go to private health insurance. So my question is why are people fighting socialized healthcare but then refuse to give it up once they have it?

Probably for the same reason they don't want to give up Social Security: I paid those taxes all my working life, so giving it up is a rip-off.

Second are most people covered by employer provided insurance currently.

Yes.

What percentage of the population is willing to give it up and move to completely self insuring?

Buying your own insurance is not self-insurance. That would be individual insurance.

Is it just an expansion of Obamacare in the sense that we will de-link employer provided health insurance

Obamacare hasn't de-linked my employer-subsidized health insurance...

require people buy insurance

Govenment mandates are a guaranteed cause of higher prices, since there's no way to do actual self-insurance.

and just let the market set the prices?

If my company increased my wages by the amount (plus income tax) that they currently subsidize my health insurance, then I might think about it.

[bjl584]

Employers originally added health coverage to employment to entice employees to accept jobs.

Over the decades it's become an expectation that employers will provide insurance for their employees. And, here we are today.

I'd say that it would be a hard pill to swallow, no pun intended, for people to accept that employers will no longer have health coverage as part of their compensation package, and that people would be responsible to find insurance on their own.

[ua_guy]

The US now trails all industrialized nations in healthcare in terms of patient outcomes and overall efficiency. We have some of the most expensive healthcare in the world. We are one of the only industrialized, wealthy nations to not offer universal coverage for its citizens.

Cruz can keep talking all he likes, but we've seen what happens when the free market reigns in healthcare. We've had decades of it. But by all means, keep pushing a broken system...