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Oddly the thing that stood out in those comments was the discussion of living expenses, and specifically health insurance. Everyone is quoting things like $700

Oddly the thing that stood out in those comments was the discussion of living expenses, and specifically health insurance. Everyone is quoting things like $700/mo and $1100/mo. Even the guy with the high deductible plan alluded to paying $116/mo for a $5k deductible. Am I the only one that pays $55/mo for a $1k deductible plan? I must be lucky or something. And that aside, seriously, you buy insurance for catastrophes... not to save $150 on a doctors visit. Why the heck would you spend $1100/mo on insurance? No wonder these people think startups are hard. They'd need a VC round just to cover their insurance premiums.

joshwa 19y ago
A lot of people these days (myself included) have chronic conditions that require ongoing regular doctor visits and/or medication. Even at a high premium level, insurance is cheaper than paying out of pocket (my maintenance medication costs $48k annually!). I guess you could argue that that makes me not a good candidate for a startup... which is why I still work for BigCo, and work on my startup at night (N.B not the one currently listed in my profile).
- Xichekolas 19y ago
  Ahhh, very true. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to get a plan outside of a company with $48k guaranteed outlay, since you wouldn't have coworkers helping to even out the cost for the insurance company. I guess there are always government backed plans like COBRA for cases like that. I think the best candidates for startups are the ones who actually make the leap... everything else is accounting... best of luck to you!
  - joshwa 19y ago
    COBRA is pricey as hell! My COBRA premiums (if I had taken it when I left my last job) would have been around $850/month. This is why the company has to pay for this stuff. I'm pretty useless if I get sick...
- nostrademons 19y ago
  I've got a friend that remarked on that once...he has Marfan's syndrome, which means that he has pricey routine medical treatments and the possibility of some very expensive emergency operations. He's working at Microsoft (despite being a big Mac person), and he said that one of the reasons why he chose to work for "the evil empire" is they have great health benefits, and no small company would be able to cover his health insurance.
LogicHoleFlaw 19y ago
My first major job out of school was with CitiBank. I hated the corporate culture there, and the immense inertia. When I left I had health insurance through the federal COBRA plan, but it cost me $400 monthly. I don't recall the deductible offhand. That was a double-whammy because not only did I no longer have the steady income from that job, but I now had an additional $400/mo expense. Fortunately I had some small savings, but I was almost to the point of going into debt for basic necessities before my next full-time job started. Beyond that, even though I had insurance through my next employer, the insurance company had a policy of denying coverage for any pre-existing conditions for three months. I was fortunate that it was only three months; I believe they can have such policies which last for up to a year. The only thing worse than paying huge amounts of money for health insurance is not having insurance. My out-of-pocket expenses were about $800-$900 monthly the few months I did not have insurance covering things like prescription medications. I'm living frugally now and saving funds to begin my own startup. But I now know that my true expenses are much greater than I had imagined as a student due to the high cost of health care.
- marvin 19y ago
  You should compare your health care expenses to what people in countries with state-paid health care pay. In Norway, the government or local government end up with about 60% (probably a bit more) of the money a regular employee earns. I think something in the realm of 10% of that money goes to health care (stitching together these numbers is a bit tricky, because our health care doesn't pay for exactly the same things your health insurance does)
illimiter 19y ago
If you live in Washington state, you can apply for Basic Health. It's state subsidized health insurance. I pay only $17 per month right now. Before I found Basic Health, I was paying $200 per month.
nostrademons 19y ago
It seems to vary a lot state-by-state. I remember reading posts about $55/month or $79/month health insurance before quitting my day job, but the cheapest I could find here in Massachusetts was that $116/month high-deductible plan. Most high-deductible plans were in the $120-130/month range, with some of the ones that didn't discriminate based on age ranging up to $230. COBRA would've been upwards of $400, and I think plain old independent HMOs would've been comparable.
martin 19y ago
$55/mo? Here in NY, you'd be lucky to get a Band-Aid for that. The cheapest plan I've seen here is the state-subsidized Healthy NY, which is ~$200/mo for crap coverage. My girlfriend is going back to school in the fall, and she's facing the decision of what to do about insurance. Seemingly, no reasonable option exists.
- agotterer 19y ago
  I was paying $550 a month in NY for United PPO while I was doing freelance/contract work. I ended up in the hospital for a week. Bill came out to something like $45,000, I didnt pay a cent. Lesson here is it's not worth getting cheap junk insurance. I don't think I would get coverage from healthy new york based solely on their website appearance. I'm shocked they aren't using the blink tag, seems so appropriate.
Prrometheus 19y ago
Reddit believes that it is impossible to be happy or succeed in America because we do not have Universal Health Insurance paid for by taxing rich people. All in all, they have a very pessimistic view of the world in general and the free market in particular. The startup crowd is long-gone from reddit. My hypothesis is that this effect comes from the international nature of reddit's audience. I hope this hasn't become the normal thinking of people in the US.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]

joshwa 19y ago

A lot of people these days (myself included) have chronic conditions that require ongoing regular doctor visits and/or medication. Even at a high premium level, insurance is cheaper than paying out of pocket (my maintenance medication costs $48k annually!). I guess you could argue that that makes me not a good candidate for a startup... which is why I still work for BigCo, and work on my startup at night (N.B not the one currently listed in my profile).

Xichekolas 19y ago
Ahhh, very true. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to get a plan outside of a company with $48k guaranteed outlay, since you wouldn't have coworkers helping to even out the cost for the insurance company. I guess there are always government backed plans like COBRA for cases like that. I think the best candidates for startups are the ones who actually make the leap... everything else is accounting... best of luck to you!
- joshwa 19y ago
  COBRA is pricey as hell! My COBRA premiums (if I had taken it when I left my last job) would have been around $850/month. This is why the company has to pay for this stuff. I'm pretty useless if I get sick...
nostrademons 19y ago
I've got a friend that remarked on that once...he has Marfan's syndrome, which means that he has pricey routine medical treatments and the possibility of some very expensive emergency operations. He's working at Microsoft (despite being a big Mac person), and he said that one of the reasons why he chose to work for "the evil empire" is they have great health benefits, and no small company would be able to cover his health insurance.

LogicHoleFlaw 19y ago

My first major job out of school was with CitiBank. I hated the corporate culture there, and the immense inertia. When I left I had health insurance through the federal COBRA plan, but it cost me $400 monthly. I don't recall the deductible offhand. That was a double-whammy because not only did I no longer have the steady income from that job, but I now had an additional $400/mo expense. Fortunately I had some small savings, but I was almost to the point of going into debt for basic necessities before my next full-time job started. Beyond that, even though I had insurance through my next employer, the insurance company had a policy of denying coverage for any pre-existing conditions for three months. I was fortunate that it was only three months; I believe they can have such policies which last for up to a year. The only thing worse than paying huge amounts of money for health insurance is not having insurance. My out-of-pocket expenses were about $800-$900 monthly the few months I did not have insurance covering things like prescription medications. I'm living frugally now and saving funds to begin my own startup. But I now know that my true expenses are much greater than I had imagined as a student due to the high cost of health care.

marvin 19y ago
You should compare your health care expenses to what people in countries with state-paid health care pay. In Norway, the government or local government end up with about 60% (probably a bit more) of the money a regular employee earns. I think something in the realm of 10% of that money goes to health care (stitching together these numbers is a bit tricky, because our health care doesn't pay for exactly the same things your health insurance does)

illimiter 19y ago

If you live in Washington state, you can apply for Basic Health. It's state subsidized health insurance. I pay only $17 per month right now. Before I found Basic Health, I was paying $200 per month.

nostrademons 19y ago

It seems to vary a lot state-by-state. I remember reading posts about $55/month or $79/month health insurance before quitting my day job, but the cheapest I could find here in Massachusetts was that $116/month high-deductible plan. Most high-deductible plans were in the $120-130/month range, with some of the ones that didn't discriminate based on age ranging up to $230. COBRA would've been upwards of $400, and I think plain old independent HMOs would've been comparable.

martin 19y ago

$55/mo? Here in NY, you'd be lucky to get a Band-Aid for that. The cheapest plan I've seen here is the state-subsidized Healthy NY, which is ~$200/mo for crap coverage. My girlfriend is going back to school in the fall, and she's facing the decision of what to do about insurance. Seemingly, no reasonable option exists.

agotterer 19y ago
I was paying $550 a month in NY for United PPO while I was doing freelance/contract work. I ended up in the hospital for a week. Bill came out to something like $45,000, I didnt pay a cent. Lesson here is it's not worth getting cheap junk insurance. I don't think I would get coverage from healthy new york based solely on their website appearance. I'm shocked they aren't using the blink tag, seems so appropriate.

Prrometheus 19y ago

Reddit believes that it is impossible to be happy or succeed in America because we do not have Universal Health Insurance paid for by taxing rich people. All in all, they have a very pessimistic view of the world in general and the free market in particular. The startup crowd is long-gone from reddit. My hypothesis is that this effect comes from the international nature of reddit's audience. I hope this hasn't become the normal thinking of people in the US.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]