How about allowing businesses to sell health insurance coverage to non-employees

[Tony_FLADEM]

How about allowing people to purchase health insurance coverage from companies they do no work for.

For example, one would be able to purchase insurance from UPS and get the same discounted price the employees receive.

The person buying the insurance would pay the entire cost + a fee to the business. Health insurance companies would lower their pricing as a way to prevent people from doing this.

Businesses would have an incentive to get health insurance for their employees because they would be able to offer coverage to non-employees and make money on the fees.

This would fulfill the purpose of the public option, would get more employers to buy health insurance coverage and make money for the business community.

Just an idea.

[endless october]

1. but the entire cost is usually over $700 a month.

just ask anyone with COBRA but no subsidy.

no one who needs health insurance can afford a $700+ per month payment.

[shraby]

2. If people can't afford the premiums now or the business they

work for can't/won't provide insurance because it's too small or too "poor", what makes you think those same people would be able to afford the premiums from another business with a fee from that business tacked on to the premium?
Also what's to prevent the business who would take non-empoyees from raising the fee all the time? Your idea sounds like a lose-lose from the consumer's standpoint.

[Tony_FLADEM]

3. Someone who buys insurance via a large business pool would be better off than

if they tried to purchase insurance individually.

Insurance companies tend to treat large businesses better because there are more consumers involved. This would benefit someone buying insurance via an existing business and those not doing so.

Companies too poor to provide insurance would benefit because their purchasing pool would be greater and this would lower the overall cost. Also, the fee would help.

The fee would only be about $50 - 70 per month.

[Statistical]

4. Have you looked at how much employer puts up to bring premiums down.

My family coverage is $250 per month. However the real cost is employer paying $800 and employee paying $250 = $1050 a month.

Got $1050 a month?

[Tony_FLADEM]

5. People who receive insurance thru their employer would most likely

not participate in this because they are satisfied.

This would benefit people who buy insurance on an individual basis. They would achieve savings if they bought insurance that includes a pool of thousands of employees i.e. UPS.

Also, just the ability for someone to do this, would keep the insurance companies honest and would lower prices for everyone else.

In your example, instead of the insurance being $1050 per month, it could go down to $900 or not go up so much each year.