Reply #32: Money is obviously fungible.

[BzaDem]

Insurance costs go up for employers when opt-outers re-join in after they get sick. And employers have the money they saved by not giving subsidies.

Whether they keep separate bank accounts or cash vaults for this is irrelevant. Employers get more from employees who opt out, and they pay more to insurance companies when they opt back in sick. Money is fungible. This is obviously true for the huge large group self insurance market (where employers ARE the insurance companies), but it is no less true when the employer is an intermediary. Formalism doesn't change economics.