"seems to me that the tie of health insurance to employment creates problems"
Didn't seem to be a problem since WW2 until the dawn of the "technology" age of medicine. Of course without any real cost constraints any system will fail. No one had to be concerned about covering the cost of a drug like Avastin in 1980. Now therapies that cost $20,000 to $30,000 a month are common. Do you believe a public system will be able to ration care properly? Maybe...