Insurance has always been about groups of people banding together to soften emergencies. Prior to the ACA, the groups were people with the same employer, and getting insurance as an individual was prohibitively expensive and had ridiculous limits. The ACA added the ability to purchase through the marketplace and prevented the rampant denials that previously existed. I’m not sure how folks are grouped in the marketplace, but I believe it’s by zip code.

I paid for my own insurance for decades and the ACA absolutely made things better, and cheaper, for individuals seeking insurance. Not even counting the subsidies for lower incomes.