That seems to be making quite a lot of assumptions—first, that even in the better states, costs to the employee are similar if they choose to get insurance indi

That seems to be making quite a lot of assumptions—first, that even in the better states, costs to the employee are similar if they choose to get insurance individually rather than through their employer. Even assuming that the cost to the employer is similar to the cost I would have to pay out-of-pocket to get insurance on the state marketplace, which is not a safe assumption, just because I choose to do that doesn't mean my employer suddenly decides to give me all the extra money they would have paid for my health insurance in my paycheck. Even if all that were true, it would only be in the better states. There is massive variation between the states on this, and some have (last I knew) truly abominable plans as the only real options. No; what we need to be pushing towards is single-payer health care, the way nearly every other civilized nation on earth does it. The market-based system we have is a travesty that literally kills people in order to further enrich the richest among us.