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I know a number of people who after they graduate would love to focus on startups under the right circumstances, but one of a number of constraints they have is
by carterschonwald 17y ago
I know a number of people who after they graduate would love to focus on startups under the right circumstances, but one of a number of constraints they have is that they need health insurance, which isn't at present something that fits easily into a "Boot Strap Budget"
- mrkurt 17y agoIt only gets worse when you have a family to insure as well. Individual health insurance can have lifelong implications and it's a massive, massive amount of additional stress. I, for one, don't enjoy worrying about a member of my family getting cancer or diabetes or something and dealing with pre-existing conditions clauses for the rest of our lives.
- skennedy 17y agoDo not forget about the massive amounts of debt that many students leave college with. Payments start 6 months after graduation.
- usaar333 17y agoIt actually isn't so bad for CS students at public schools. Some internships (msft, google, facebook, etc.) pay enough to cover a year's worth of tuition and housing.
- garply 17y agoWell, they could go without health insurance. Frankly, if you're going to be uninsured at some point in your life, such a young age is the best time to do it... it's when you're old and sick that you want to be insured most, not when you're young and healthy.
- carterschonwald 17y agoIt not the simple for folks with congenital health conditions or who are can't function due to a medical disorder without some prescription which is easily affordable with insurance, but impossible to afford in a "ramen profitable" san insurance context. An easy example would be someone with severe adhd. The relevant sort of medication can cost as little as 30 dollars with insurance, but total around $400 dollars otherwise (apparently there can be a nontrivial difference in efficacy of generic versus nongeneric). Such a person, working at/on a startup, would need to be able to functionally transition between working on a variety of tasks through out the day, ever day, irrespective of how engaging each task is to work on. These are precisely the circumstances where that person's adhd would be most problematic. And thats a simple example, what about say a person with Crohn's Disease (and need to be able to cover the expenses that happen whenever it becomes problematic), or someone with bipolar disorder who with the right prescription and monitoring at worst has on vs off weeks in terms of productivity. Yes, these examples are relatively sparse, but nonetheless there are certainly easy to construct examples where the absence of insurance to cover certain regular expenses makes "ramen profitable" untenable
- jasonkester 17y agoHealth insurance is $89/month if you're young. That comes in on the monthly budget right alongside beer and hosting. Housing and Car payments are the thing that get you.
- ericd 17y agoCould you point to this health insurance? The cheapest I've found was ~250/mo.
- coryrc 17y agoIf you're in WA, OR, or AZ: www.lifewise-insurance.com Balance that with $50/mo at www.qliance.com and you have everything you need.
- usaar333 17y agoI have Blue Shield VitaBlue 1900 which costs about $69/month including dental. If you are willing to accept an extremely high deductible ($1900 annually here), you can get relatively cheap health insurance.
- ericd 17y agoNice, that sounds perfect (though I'm not sure Blue Shield operates in NY...). Know of any good sites that show what insurance plans are available in what states? (or did you find that via some other method?)
- usaar333 17y agoI actually just found out from a friend. There are definitely sites out there that show all rates; just search around for high deductibles. You should have a Blue Cross, Blue Shield, etc. affiliate in NY.
- silverlake 17y agohave you checked out the freelancers union in NY? They offer cheaper insurance and other benefits.