Kind of ironic isn't it, the people against universal medicare are the same ones spouting "freedom", but infact universal medicare would give them more real individual freedom than any other bills sent to the Senate these days.

> Once healthcare is tied to employment, that is exactly what people are.

Yep, and this marvelous US productivity hack by employers and lawmakers (/s) - of making affordable healthcare conditional to employment - is unfortunately growing around the world. Parallel to this move is the continued commodification of most other resources and relationships.

In the US, anyone can buy the same health insurance from healthcare.gov. However, if you are not self employed, then you will have to pay with post tax dollars as opposed to pretax dollars.

Employers do pay a portion (usual 50% or more) of the health insurance premiums, but these days it is just another form of compensation, worth somewhere around $200 to $1,200 per family member per month (pretax).

Before ACA, it was true there were cases you simply could not get health insurance without an employer, as you could be denied for a multitude of reasons.