It's amazing how brainwashed we have become. Employer tied healthcare is one of the worst things that happened to Americans in my opinion. It justifies the insurance middle men, gives employers more power for no reason and takes away choice from people. And no, just because you can buy insurance yourself, you cannot beat the "group" rates that companies get from insurance companies. I saw all this as a Small Business Owner/Employer who would rather give my employees more cash than dealing with shitty insurance companies and their monopolies.

Also, real cost would never go down until people realize that employers subsidizing outrageous premiums is never going to force the market to lower costs (mostly inflated due to insurance companies in the picture again for EVERYTHING).