Love how every one of these articles is written from the perspective of somebody who has no idea what it’s like to deal with expensive chronic illness.
Sometimes people look at the "nominal" cost of catastrophic insurance or their partial contribution as an employee and extrapolate - but that doesn't work when you're fending for yourself.
Another wrinkle with the "what do I need to pay for the equivalent of this without an employer", in my state, is that only two providers—both ones I'd never heard of before—offer individual insurance plans at all. The others do not deal in them any more, period. Call them and ask, that's what they'll tell you. Call an insurance broker and ask, that's what they'll tell you. "No, zero providers aside from the two on the exchange offer individual plans in this state now". IOW, it is impossible to pay for an individual plan as good as even mediocre employer-provided plans in my state.
For one thing, both exchange providers have far worse networks (lists of specific healthcare providers for which the insurance applies, for non-USians) than even some pretty terrible employer plans I've been on before. They're also worse value for the money, even factoring in the full cost (as one might with, for example, COBRA) even if their networks were as good.
I'd prefer single payer, but I was comparing to what we had before, where lots of people simply died due to being denied any insurance despite willingness and ability to pay. Even a condition as treatable as asthma would get you denied private health insurance.
Some states do, unfortunately, have very high premiums because their anti-Obama leaders intentionally chose to screw over their constituents for political points.
True, something along those lines is very likely what's up with ours.