I remember companies pushing their workers to part-time status so they wouldn't have to provide health insurance due to government intervention. That could be a dissertation in and of itself, but the bottom line is the same - the government messes with the free market to the people's peril every single time! But that isn't what I want to address. The reason insurance is so expensive is because of the ACA!
Just like with student loans, when the government steps in and guarantees a subsidy of any kind to the taxpayer, corporations WILL take that to gouge. Period. So, let's say, for example, the government offers taxpayers $15k a year off their insurance plan through the "marketplace? Insurance companies raise their prices to ensure they capture the subsidy they wouldn't have received otherwise, because they would never have been able to charge the premiums they've put in place without the government stepping in. It wouldn't have worked in a free market. There would always be a cheaper option that people would flock to.
Over the course of a decade, everything else followed suit. Need a saline IV bag? That'll be $900 with your insurance. Need an MRI? That'll be $2k with your insurance. Having a baby in a hospital? We know the taxpayer is subsidizing your insurance, so it is $96k. Want a medicine? We own the benefits managers and we set the prices. A $7 pill costs $6k now. Have fun! Oh, and also, you have a 14k deductible while also paying $1200-$2000 a month. Without insurance? All of those costs drop so much that it makes more sense not to have insurance. That is how you know the government stepped in. Period.
The reason all of this happened is because the government went down the road of ACA and taxpayer subsidies. There are solutions. Start learning more about how to be healthy, so you aren't dependent on Big Pharma and the corrupt system to keep you alive. However, if that isn't an option, if the government rolled back the ACA to pre-ACA days, there would suddenly be a company offering insurance to the self-employed/not yet ready for Medicare, or there are many co-ops. But the big thing? Be well so you don't need a doctor and pills up the wazoo. Let employers shop a free market for healthcare again. Stop penalizing/taxing/handing out free cash and let the market determine rates. Also, if I didn't mention it, get healthy NOW so you won't be in a terrible position as you age. Not ALL health problems are predictable, but we have a lot of control over how we take care of ourselves, starting with the food we eat, which is so critical.
Literally the only reason everything costs so much and insurance is so ridiculous is because of the government, and they want us to feel bad for the people losing their subsidy (I will be one of those) and continue the cash cow on the taxpayers' backs. No. Get rid of the ACA and let the market normalize.
In the student loan example, the government guaranteed loans to individuals with no credit history and no established income stream to repay the loans. The colleges knew that the government was guaranteeing all of these loans, circumstances be damned, so they hiked their tuitions through the roof—prices they would NEVER have been able to charge without the government guarantee. Again, we need to let the free market make decisions for us, not the government.
