What me and my partner did to get lower insurance was setup an LLC, and get the insurance through that as a small business. I believe in NJ, the rule for insurers is companies under 40 employees, get one rate, and companies over 40, get an adjusted rate based on the medical history of those employees. So if you have a couple of employees that get really sick, god forbid, your rates will be adjusted for everyone across the board higher. It saved us quite a bit of money compared to going out solo, or taking what the clearing firm offers.
Maintaining heath benefits requires a full time employee to do the paperwork. So most small companies don't want to deal with the headache.
You also have to remember that insurers are businesses that need to stay profitable. If their premiums aren't adjusted higher to compensate for what they payout, then they can't exist. Just like the government, it can only spend what they get in, if they run a deficit, they're assuming future revenues to cover those deficits. If those revenues don't materialize at some point, they go bankrupt. And yes, even governments can go bankrupt.
We're in a pickle here people. Even if we unionized and forced insurers to lower rates to the point they're losing money, they'll have to turn to the government for help in subsidizing the shortfalls. The government gets money from us in the form of taxes. So we'd still be paying the full premium, just in an indirect way.
Alot of us worked for big companies and got used to the cheap insurance cause those companies subsidized a large portion of the premiums. But if anyone has ever gone on COBRA, they've seen what the real amount those companies pay for premiums. And it's not cheap even for them.