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You can, but from my understanding the math is not equivalent - employer-subsidised healthcare is cheaper even when you factor everything in, because they benef

by untog 9y ago

You can, but from my understanding the math is not equivalent - employer-subsidised healthcare is cheaper even when you factor everything in, because they benefit from group-buying discounts. So yes, if lucrative enough. But that's quite the qualifier, especially when you won't have a reliable income.

Apocryphon 9y ago
Sounds like a case for unions or some other professional association where workers can band together into common insurance pools.
- westbywest 9y ago
  The ability to negotiate healthcare benefits as a group is indeed a popular justification for unions in fields not historically associated with union labor. Freelancers Union is an example, in addition to others mentioned up-thread. https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/ https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  Circling back to the inescapability of politics.
prostoalex 9y ago
> You can, but from my understanding the math is not equivalent - employer-subsidised healthcare is cheaper even when you factor everything in, because they benefit from group-buying discounts. Well, that's partially correct. True for General Electric, but companies with 500-1,000 employees don't really have a pull. Remember that insurance is also bought by state, so only employers heavily concentrated in one state get those. The biggie on the employer side is tax deductibility. US taxpayers generously subsidize the cost of employer-purchased health plans but not the cost of individual-purchased health plans. As an individual you can tweak the situation in your favor (figure out if your doctor or dentist belongs to an HMO, join an HMO instead of PPO/EPO plan, buy a bronze plan when you're young and single, upgrade to gold or platinum when you're older or have kids), but the massive corporate subsidy still means that someone working for a corporation and receiving exact same benefit would be paying less.

by untog 9y ago

Apocryphon 9y ago

Sounds like a case for unions or some other professional association where workers can band together into common insurance pools.

westbywest 9y ago
The ability to negotiate healthcare benefits as a group is indeed a popular justification for unions in fields not historically associated with union labor. Freelancers Union is an example, in addition to others mentioned up-thread. https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/ https://www.freelancersunion.org/benefits/
pavel_lishin 9y ago
Circling back to the inescapability of politics.

prostoalex 9y ago

> You can, but from my understanding the math is not equivalent - employer-subsidised healthcare is cheaper even when you factor everything in, because they benefit from group-buying discounts. Well, that's partially correct. True for General Electric, but companies with 500-1,000 employees don't really have a pull. Remember that insurance is also bought by state, so only employers heavily concentrated in one state get those. The biggie on the employer side is tax deductibility. US taxpayers generously subsidize the cost of employer-purchased health plans but not the cost of individual-purchased health plans. As an individual you can tweak the situation in your favor (figure out if your doctor or dentist belongs to an HMO, join an HMO instead of PPO/EPO plan, buy a bronze plan when you're young and single, upgrade to gold or platinum when you're older or have kids), but the massive corporate subsidy still means that someone working for a corporation and receiving exact same benefit would be paying less.