That incentive is obfuscated, though. Every insurer exists as an invisible boundary where cost is not passed to others.
On top of that, insurance is optional. There is no guarantee a person will get affordable care. That's the entire point of the system! If there were a guarantee, it would be indistinguishable from Canada (and practically every other country's) single payer healthcare system.
> Every insurer exists as an invisible boundary where cost is not passed to others.
How does that affect issues like this where an increase in overall costs would reasonably be expected to apply to all insurers?
> On top of that, insurance is optional.
More than 90% of the population has health insurance, which is well over the majority required to bring about legislation.
> If there were a guarantee, it would be indistinguishable from Canada (and practically every other country's) single payer healthcare system.
That certainly isn't true. Serious problems with the US healthcare system include AMA lobbying to maintain a doctor shortage, various patent laws and FDA rules that limit competition and increase costs and a malicious lack of cost transparency. None of that would be improved merely by routing the premiums through the government.
On top of that, insurance is optional. There is no guarantee a person will get affordable care. That's the entire point of the system! If there were a guarantee, it would be indistinguishable from Canada (and practically every other country's) single payer healthcare system.