A FAINT LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? If preliminary summaries of Obamacare are true, it looks like individual health insurance will soon be a better deal than employer-provided health insurance. In the individual market [with the pre-existing condition limitation gone], you can now wait until you're really sick to buy insurance: "Heads I win, tails I break even."

Commenter Robert astutely observes:

Something is being left out of the "heads I win, tails I break even" argument. Even within the new system, there is a strong incentive to buy insurance even if you are healthy. In fact, the primary reason I carry insurance now is that it allows me to take advantage of the insurance company rates for routine care. For example, a physical with lab work costs about $600 if you are uninsured....but only about half that if you are insured. What I do is carry a relatively cheap high deductible ($10,000) policy (effectively, I pay for my own care), but I pay dramatically reduced prices because I get the BCBS rate for care instead of the MSRP.

For example, I recently had an MRI. The MSRP was $1,200, but the BCBS negotiated rate was $400. Since I have not met my high deductible, I had to pay, but only the $400. Simply by virtue of being insured (if barely), I avoided an $800 incremental expense. Those of us in the private/individual insurance market are well aware of this incentive to carry insurance. Even under the new regime, I will have a very muted incentive to play the "heads I win....." game because of the access I have to negotiated prices by virtue of holding a cheap, high deductible policy.

So maybe there’s hope for me yet if by banning preexisting conditions ObamaCare allows me to finally buy that high-deductable policy I want on the individual market.