The author is a consultant so I find this article biased. A friend of mine works as insurance manager and he has dealt with some startups and many medium-size companies. Group purchase is relatively cheaper and more convenient to manage.

So why people love universal health package from your boss? The most obvious reason is it cost a few thousand dollars per year to cover your own premium. http://news.ehealthinsurance.com/pr/ehi/how-much-does-health... According to the source above, family is around $4000, and individual is around $3000

Google and Facebook always competes for the best people in this industry. Suppose both get rid of health insurance, but Facebook is willing increase salary by $1000 - $2000 on average. WoW. So which one would you go now, Mr. Author? Facebook? Yeah. Because that $2000 is used to cover premium. On the other hands, Google doesn't raise my salary and I would have to take out $4000 total to cover my whole family.

The fact that your employer has someone to deal with the agent, does all billing and contacts for you makes your life easier as a worker. You don't have to scratch your heads trying to find the best agent out there. All the basic health plan covers the same. Some big companies will purchase expensive package because they want to attract more talent workers.

The amount your boss will save by canceling health package is a lot, but they won't increase your salary by $5000 - $10k. They just won't. Maybe $1000. You still have to pay for the rest yourself.

Getting breakfast, lunch and even dinner all by yourself is a lot of money. Big tech companies are known to offer free meals because they want to make sure their workers can get the most out of their work time AND at the same time getting the most out of their salary. Which company would offer more than 20% of salary raise by getting rid of employee benefits?

Another problem is showing caring. Even in a small bakery shop, the #1 benefit is they can purchase left over food at very low price. Some nice owners even let workers to take them home (I used to work for a bakery). My boss didn't pay me health insurance because it was a small shop, but I get to save my breakfast for my parents by getting free food every night! Many Chinese takeout hire workers from other states and they live in the same apartment. That's their benefit. That kind of convenient makes both employer and employees happy.

I hate to say but people should stop trying to make life as a software. Seriously.

If you like software methodology, fine, here is one: stop re-inventing a common wheel. Let your boss does the billing for you. You use that third-party API. Now move on.