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Except the insurance market doesn't work like that. You get a job, that job determines your insurance. There's no shopping around for the best rates.

by krupan 8y ago

lotsofpulp 8y ago
That's because the government allowed tax exempt employer funded health insurance to stick around. If everyone was forced onto healthcare.gov then it could be possible. Employers would have one less thing to deal with that has nothing to do with their product and taxpayers wouldn't have to worry about being tied to their employers, and can more accurately compare differences in pay and whatnot.
- krupan 8y ago
  I strongly agree with everything you said except forcing everyone to healthcare.gov. A free market for insurance can and should exist without the need for a government run website/market
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    A free market also requires knowledgeable purchasers to make informed decisions. In the case of health insurance, it's so complicated that it makes sense to simplify it to protect consumers and offer easy to compare options (bronze/silver/gold). I guess it doesn't have to be government run, but it's already built and does a pretty good job.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Except the insurance market doesn't work like that. You get a job, that job determines your insurance. That's not really the source of the lack of competition, as employers are motivated to minimize rates for what they ger, whether they are seeking to fulfill a government minimum-coverage mandate or provide a competitive benefit to attract/retain staff. (It is a source of some other problems, just not the one at issue.)
- krupan 8y ago
  Instead of insurance companies competing for millions of individual customers, they are vying for maybe thousands of business customers. Except that the insurance companies don't seem to care at all about giving small businesses a good deal, so subtract them from the pool of potential customers that insurance companies care about. Really big businesses don't buy insurance, they just self insure, so insurance companies aren't competing for those customers either. Employer provided insurance absolutely reduces competitive forces (among other problems it causes, as you point out).

Except the insurance market doesn't work like that. You get a job, that job determines your insurance. There's no shopping around for the best rates.

by krupan 8y ago

Except the insurance market doesn't work like that. You get a job, that job determines your insurance. There's no shopping around for the best rates.

lotsofpulp 8y ago

That's because the government allowed tax exempt employer funded health insurance to stick around. If everyone was forced onto healthcare.gov then it could be possible. Employers would have one less thing to deal with that has nothing to do with their product and taxpayers wouldn't have to worry about being tied to their employers, and can more accurately compare differences in pay and whatnot.

krupan 8y ago
I strongly agree with everything you said except forcing everyone to healthcare.gov. A free market for insurance can and should exist without the need for a government run website/market
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  A free market also requires knowledgeable purchasers to make informed decisions. In the case of health insurance, it's so complicated that it makes sense to simplify it to protect consumers and offer easy to compare options (bronze/silver/gold). I guess it doesn't have to be government run, but it's already built and does a pretty good job.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> Except the insurance market doesn't work like that. You get a job, that job determines your insurance. That's not really the source of the lack of competition, as employers are motivated to minimize rates for what they ger, whether they are seeking to fulfill a government minimum-coverage mandate or provide a competitive benefit to attract/retain staff. (It is a source of some other problems, just not the one at issue.)

krupan 8y ago
Instead of insurance companies competing for millions of individual customers, they are vying for maybe thousands of business customers. Except that the insurance companies don't seem to care at all about giving small businesses a good deal, so subtract them from the pool of potential customers that insurance companies care about. Really big businesses don't buy insurance, they just self insure, so insurance companies aren't competing for those customers either. Employer provided insurance absolutely reduces competitive forces (among other problems it causes, as you point out).