> 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 thei

> 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. I'm not sure what you mean by "decoupled." I could buy private health insurance prior to the ACA and it was cheaper (at least for me it was). Also, I wouldn't call the marketplace "open." Right now health insurance is like the internet in that you can only purchase it from local providers and you can only realistically use it at "in network providers" without the cost becoming astronomical. The lack of competition is what is artificially keeping prices high. Case in point: my dental and vision insurance can be used in all 50 states with a huge number of providers and costs a fraction of what my health insurance costs.