I'm not so sure, Lancelot: A very large number of employers have always told many of their employees to go buy their own health insurance. I don't think that's going to change enough to make a big difference, and here's why...
Without getting political, what we can say is that voters don't typically vote for candidates that are promising to pass laws that will cut the cost of a specific class of product or service. As a matter of fact, the only way we've ever seen voters vote based on a promise to pass laws that will cut the cost of anything is when the target is non-specific, as in the case of taxes. Since proponents can keep the identity of what will be harmed by the cut in taxes out of the discussion (spending is a separate matter from taxes), the voter isn't challenged to think about their vote in the context of what will be gone, i.e., what harm their vote can cause. As soon as you make things real, by tying a specific vote to the loss of a specific
thing, practically everyone who benefits from that which would be lost, and practically everyone who is related to anyone who benefits, etc., will vote
'no'.
Therefore, I think if someone (for example) tried to get a nationwide campaign going to reduce the wages of all health care workers by 30% to cut health care costs, that campaign would fail miserably. Same with trying to reduce or cap malpractice awards - the opponents would just have to present the heartfelt stories of victims of malpractice to scuttle such efforts. It all sounds good on paper, this idea of cutting costs, but even the idea of nationalizing insurers, large health care network corporations, and pharmaceutical companies to eliminate the contribution to costs associated with their profits would fail, because of how those profits can be so readily tied, in the minds of voters, to large investments in those profits on the part of Grandpa's pension plan, Mamaw's variable annuity. Or their PR companies will quickly foster in the minds of voters how such government confiscation of private assets means "They're coming after yours, next!"
If I knew the answer, then I'd be worthy of being nominated for a Nobel Prize.
What I think is important to keep in mind is that there actually may not be any answer to be found. There is no requirement that reality treat us kindly. There may be no way of unraveling this mess without a lot of people getting severely hurt or at least severely burdened in some way.