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Yeah, I definitely get that from the subtext or, sometimes, the text. The weird thing is that it's cutting off their noses to spite their faces ... they spend

Yeah, I definitely get that from the subtext or, sometimes, the text. The weird thing is that it's cutting off their noses to spite their faces ... they spend MORE on insurance then they would in taxes. But in a lot of cases, it's like they will not (or can not) learn from what is going on in other countries. Maybe it's also US exceptionalism at play?

oblio 7y ago
I think you can see a bit of the same thing with ID cards and unique identifiers. Most European countries have a state-issued ID card and an unique identifier for every citizen. The US has a million IDs from different institutions, states, corporations and they keep causing messes, still, having 1 ID card and a unique identifier is seen as bad for reasons that baffle me.
war1025 7y ago
I think what it comes down to for many people is that their employer covers their health insurance premiums, and they fear that they would actually have to pay market value for health insurance if it were removed from the employer benefit umbrella. For a country that supposedly values small business, there are few things I could think of that would support small business more than public healthcare. Currently, large employers can get a group plan with very reasonable rates. Small employers are pretty much out of luck. It stands to reason to me that the bigger the pool, the more predictable and lower the costs. It's ridiculous to me that arbitrary groups of people can't go in on a health plan together. If a company with 50k employees can do it, why can't a city / state / random assortment of people?
- wayoutthere 7y ago
  That’s basically what the health exchanges are. Small businesses do not have to provide health insurance; and in most cases the exchanges provide more choice and lower cost than small businesses would have access to. But it does increase the gap in wages between the big corporates and small businesses. It’s very hard for small businesses to hire good talent when they can work in the corporate world for a higher salary plus benefits.
  - war1025 7y ago
    As someone who works for a small company (~10-15 people), it's possible we're missing out on something obvious, but two years ago we (my employer) looked pretty extensively into our different options and settled on our current plan as the best option. I have a 1500/3000 family plan with a sticker price of $32,000 / year. I pay a third of that and my employer picks up the rest. I guess it's possible that this is about the going rate and most employers just pick up more of the cost than mine. Either way, that seems like an unsustainable amount of money to be paying each year.
    - wayoutthere 7y ago
      Yeah, a family plan at my employer (a big corporate) with the same limits is about $5000/yr to the employee. And that’s on top of the fact my salary is already 25-50% higher than it would be at a small business. The deck is seriously stacked against smaller employers right now.

oblio 7y ago

I think you can see a bit of the same thing with ID cards and unique identifiers. Most European countries have a state-issued ID card and an unique identifier for every citizen. The US has a million IDs from different institutions, states, corporations and they keep causing messes, still, having 1 ID card and a unique identifier is seen as bad for reasons that baffle me.

war1025 7y ago

I think what it comes down to for many people is that their employer covers their health insurance premiums, and they fear that they would actually have to pay market value for health insurance if it were removed from the employer benefit umbrella. For a country that supposedly values small business, there are few things I could think of that would support small business more than public healthcare. Currently, large employers can get a group plan with very reasonable rates. Small employers are pretty much out of luck. It stands to reason to me that the bigger the pool, the more predictable and lower the costs. It's ridiculous to me that arbitrary groups of people can't go in on a health plan together. If a company with 50k employees can do it, why can't a city / state / random assortment of people?

wayoutthere 7y ago
That’s basically what the health exchanges are. Small businesses do not have to provide health insurance; and in most cases the exchanges provide more choice and lower cost than small businesses would have access to. But it does increase the gap in wages between the big corporates and small businesses. It’s very hard for small businesses to hire good talent when they can work in the corporate world for a higher salary plus benefits.
- war1025 7y ago
  As someone who works for a small company (~10-15 people), it's possible we're missing out on something obvious, but two years ago we (my employer) looked pretty extensively into our different options and settled on our current plan as the best option. I have a 1500/3000 family plan with a sticker price of $32,000 / year. I pay a third of that and my employer picks up the rest. I guess it's possible that this is about the going rate and most employers just pick up more of the cost than mine. Either way, that seems like an unsustainable amount of money to be paying each year.
  - wayoutthere 7y ago
    Yeah, a family plan at my employer (a big corporate) with the same limits is about $5000/yr to the employee. And that’s on top of the fact my salary is already 25-50% higher than it would be at a small business. The deck is seriously stacked against smaller employers right now.