Talking points: What to tell people who say "Obamacare forces us to buy health insurance"

[joshcryer]

28. Then that's surely your employer screwing you and not health care reform?

I don't understand how you cannot opt out of your employer plan unless you do not believe it is in your interests to wait for the 1 year exclusionary self-insured plan, which I can absolutely understand, and that needs to be fixed. I believe the exclusionary period shrinks as more of the reforms come online but I'm not sure on that count.

I'm trying to find information about this because you say it's what your employer offers, yet no insurer can deny you coverage on their group plans (large group), they can only exclude you for a set period of time (no more than 1 year). All I'm finding about this is Heritage Foundation crap bitching about a government takeover of insurers, to be honest.

I found this comprehensive report about declining employee-sponsored health coverage. Their conclusions are startling:

Employer-sponsored health insurance is increasingly failing American families. If the coverage rate had not fallen 10.6 percentage points as it did from 2000 to 2010, as many as 28 million more people under age 65 would have had ESI in 2010. Public insurance, primarily in the form of Medicaid and CHIP, has been working to counteract this trend. However, many Americans, particularly those of working age, are falling through the cracks.

In the future, elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—particularly the provisions establishing health insurance exchanges and the accompanying subsidies, which will come into effect in 2014—will make it easier and more affordable for Americans to secure and maintain health insurance coverage. However, the continued weak labor market will likely lead to further losses in employer-sponsored insurance coverage before major relief from health reform is realized.