The government does not have to be involved but our society is moving away from employer sponsored healthcare which was really introduced in early 1970’s. Before that you had “hospitalization” which was really just catastrophic care.
The Federal option is for to give individuals access to groups. Buying into the Federal program, if desired but not required, was a very simple solution that was talked about in 2008.
The biggest problem in the State of Utah, for instance is that a small business could not get access to group rates.
There is actually a lot of anti-competitive tendencies in the health insurance market. I would love to buy my own insurance across state lines, which is the main thing being promoted by Trump.
I present this information from his book written 15 years ago, however, have not heard him opine on this during the campaign. I was posting a position held prior to 2015.
A position Trump stole from Cruz.
11 months ago...
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/234499-cruz-unveils-obamacare-alternative
Cruz’s bill, called the Health Care Choices Act, would allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, long a Republican health policy goal.