No. Back in the days when I had to file my own claims, I had to pay the provider. The insurance company paid me. If I couldn't afford the whole thing I could pay an estimate of what the insurance wouldn't pay up front (that was the old 80/20 plan), and they'd bill me for the rest. And I'd pay the provider the rest when I received the money from the claim. In that kind of system, the market is still intact.
I don't think health insurance needs to be tied to employment. That's a bad model. I don't see insurance itself as an evil though. It's a valuable product for a lot of people that helps take some uncertainty out of life. If it's a cash register, how will you pay for a long stay in the hospital? Of course it'd be more affordable than it is today. But still expensive.
I would not favor eliminating insurance, and I would not favor prohibiting employers from providing it. But I think some rules need to change to make employment not the #1 way to get insurance, and I certainly think the customer always needs to have the primary role in decision making. Paying the healthcare provider should be a unique transaction between the patient and the provider. Claiming an insured event should be a unique transaction between the insured and the insurance company. What got rid of the cash registers was PPOs. After that I never filed another claim and I was taken out of the loop.
