In fact, it is intended to build on the existing employer-based system.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, denied that the president wanted to move people away from the employer-based system and toward the individual insurance market.

In their desire to achieve universal coverage, some Democrats have also begun to raise questions about the employer-based system.

The employer-based system we have in the United States has served many millions of people for many years.

Some proposed a "single payer" approach, modeled on the European and Canadian health care systems, which would replace the current employer-based system.

The employer-based system has given us job lock, where employees are reluctant to move to a more productive job where health insurance is not offered.

I think obviously the disruption of doing away with an entire employer-based system is not something that's soon going to be feasible.

"The problem is, we have evolved partly by accident into an employer-based system."

That idea, liberals assert, is flawed, and dangerous to the stability of the employer-based system.

On top of everything else, our employer-based system seriously obscures who is paying what, making cost controls difficult.