The existence of the ACA is no panacea. Many physicians and clinics purposely refuse to honor any ACA plan (for political reasons, in at least some cases of which I unfortunately know from personal experience). And everyone who’s been on COBRA for any length of time knows it is God-awful expensive since you’re now paying for the whole piece.
It’s good to put a number out for people who don’t know: I estimate ~500/month for the employer portion for an individual coverage. Whether that’s considered “God awful” or “peanuts” is dependent on one’s situation but most probably for the average tech employee in California it shouldn’t be the end of the world compared to their other expenditures.
Sure, I also prefer disassociation of health care from employment but I think it’s important not to scare people away from layoffs or discourage exploration of other opportunities because they’d be scared of losing health coverage.
