Decoupling Health Insurance from Employment

Employers providing healthcare is a part of the compensation package though, right? Couldn't people buy insurance by themselves if they wanted?

I agree. Employers don't pay for a number of other insurances, why should health be different?

Wow, it’s almost like having health insurance tied to employers creates a giant obstacle to pursuing less exploitative opportunities.

Employers are presumably paying taxes, so funding it through taxes is not letting them off the hook. Additionally, what about people who are unemployed (which is now >20% by U6 in the US) or work in jobs that don't offer healthcare? And what if you get fired? Or you want to change jobs but have a health condition which means you'll be in trouble without health insurance? Or your employer changes health insurance providers without consulting you and now your coverage or doctor has ch

Why not just decouple health insurance from employment?

Employer provided "health insurance" is a terrible idea that needs to go. It creates friction in the job market. It shifts costs to the government - companies pay lower premiums because working people are on average healthier. As OP says, it hides the full cost from the employee. I really don't understand how this practice came to be or why people think it should continue.

Man, it sure would be great if we could decouple health insurance from employment like other reasonable countries. It would be a shame to literally have your existence threatened by absurd factors well outside of your control (like your employer unable to meet payroll due to a global pandemic).

This will not happen, and the reason is that Obamacare made a great effort to decouple health care insurance and benefits from the employer. Since insurance is now available for purchase on the open marketplace, there are whole classes of employers who don't need to worry about including it in their benefits packages which they offer. It would be a step backwards to require or force companies to include it, especially to gig workers or contract employees; they should simply compensate them

You cut off the sentence you quoted. Its undesirable to have "health insurance" tied to your employer.

Isn't it fixed though? I thought that was the whole point of the insurance subsidies. You should be able to get healthcare (possibly even better healthcare), even if your employer doesn't provide it.I thought.