The ideal thing would be to get the companies out of the loop paying for insurance. Maybe that will happen sometime in the future, but who knows. I know, you read stories in the news that companies won’t hire smokers. Next will be something else, possibly.
Note how Romney has stepped forward and offered a Republican response to what is likely to become (given Iraq victory) the ultimate issue in the 2008 Presidential campaign. It is a plan that goes on offense, rather than just plays defense against Democrat proposals.
The reason you can’t play only defense and say repeated NO to the Dem proposal is because of something conservatives with employer plans cannot understand — namely The Status Quo Loses. The voters will not accept continued 15%/yr increases in premiums and pre-existing condition exclusion.
That is the status quo and it loses. If you lose you are irrelevant.
Playing offense on this issue is critically important.