Employer Sponsored Health Insurance - What's the Problem?

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The average cost of employer sponsored health insurance is about $20,000. Most people regard COBRA as a failure partly because of its short-term nature and partly because it's very expensive. If you go onto COBRA, you have to pay the whole cost yourself.

Economist Ed Dolan of the Niskanen Center talks about employer-based health insurance with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Dolan discusses how unusual it is relative to other countries that so many Americans get their health insurance through their employer and the implications of that phenomenon for the structure of the health insurance market. Dolan explores the drawbacks of this structure and makes the case for what he calls Universal Catastrophic Coverage.