> And yet, employers prefer the employer-provided health insurance model, because it increases the friction of switching/quitting jobs. Where do people get th

> And yet, employers prefer the employer-provided health insurance model, because it increases the friction of switching/quitting jobs. Where do people get this idea from? No, employers do not prefer the employer-provided model. Especially at scale (employers with more than about 1000 employees), it's dramatically more expensive for them than it would be if they didn't have to operate health plans themselves, and instead could pay employees more to purchase comparable health insurance independently. However, employers aren't the culprit, because they can't change that part of the system. The only choice an employer can make is what kind of health insurance to offer. There's one backdoor - employers can offer a cafeteria plan, which is what a few employers (like Netflix) do, but in most states, there simply are no good plans (at any price) for health insurance that are comparable to what an employer can provide, so this option is rarely used.