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California would increase taxes by $12,250 per household Let's take it at face value this is fact. For my healthcare plan I pay 6k a year on top of what the c

California would increase taxes by $12,250 per household Let's take it at face value this is fact. For my healthcare plan I pay 6k a year on top of what the company pays (more that 20k). Then I pay copays on top of that. It seems perfectly plausible to me that I would come out ahead if the company and I switched from paying about 30k a year in healthcare costs to a single payer system with only 20k a year in costs to me and my employer! We can split the difference and each is ahead 5k. I think people need to do more than just read a headline.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
That is $12,250 on average. If you are a FAANG tech worker, it will be much higher than that, you will less likely to be coming out ahead on this the more money you make (though, to be fair, they are only proposing to fund this partially with an income tax increase).
- uberman 5y ago
  For me the surtax would raise my taxes payroll from 12.05% to 14.05% or roughly 10k and all things considered I make a lot of money. If my employer stopped providing health insurance and instead paid the approximately 4.5% (estimated as I don't see the actual schedule of payroll tax only that it kicks in at 50k and tops out at 2.25%) business side of this. We still come out about even.
Justin_K 5y ago
Also think about how providers won't accept lower rates, so your new discount plan will only give you access to bottom of the barrel providers willing to take any patient at any price.
- larkost 5y ago
  You are forgetting that insurance companies are a middleman eating up some of the costs, both as profits and as costs. It is a slightly unfair comparison (Medicare has more older people who have large single-issue costs, so less admin work), but Medicare costs about 2% of its costs in administrative costs. Whereas private insurance usually is more like 12%-18%. There are a lot of details in that to sort, and no-one expects a final single-payer system to wind up quite as good as Medicare is... but there is a lot of fat to trim off the private insurance system. And note please: we are only talking about admin fees (salaries and the like for people working there), this has nothing to do with the actual costs of care. If anything this is unfair against Medicare, since they are ruthless in negotiating their actual costs (something private insurance is not really incentivized to do at all).

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

That is $12,250 on average. If you are a FAANG tech worker, it will be much higher than that, you will less likely to be coming out ahead on this the more money you make (though, to be fair, they are only proposing to fund this partially with an income tax increase).

uberman 5y ago
For me the surtax would raise my taxes payroll from 12.05% to 14.05% or roughly 10k and all things considered I make a lot of money. If my employer stopped providing health insurance and instead paid the approximately 4.5% (estimated as I don't see the actual schedule of payroll tax only that it kicks in at 50k and tops out at 2.25%) business side of this. We still come out about even.

Justin_K 5y ago

Also think about how providers won't accept lower rates, so your new discount plan will only give you access to bottom of the barrel providers willing to take any patient at any price.

larkost 5y ago
You are forgetting that insurance companies are a middleman eating up some of the costs, both as profits and as costs. It is a slightly unfair comparison (Medicare has more older people who have large single-issue costs, so less admin work), but Medicare costs about 2% of its costs in administrative costs. Whereas private insurance usually is more like 12%-18%. There are a lot of details in that to sort, and no-one expects a final single-payer system to wind up quite as good as Medicare is... but there is a lot of fat to trim off the private insurance system. And note please: we are only talking about admin fees (salaries and the like for people working there), this has nothing to do with the actual costs of care. If anything this is unfair against Medicare, since they are ruthless in negotiating their actual costs (something private insurance is not really incentivized to do at all).