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If something is unsustainable then eventually it will stop. US healthcare costs have been increasing at faster than the rate of inflation to the extent that it

• glimshe 1y ago
  I'd prefer that if it was replaced by a system where the business pays/subsidizes YOUR ACA plan. Changing health plans when you change jobs is a huge headache.
  • franktankbank 1y ago
    I'd prefer it be unrelated and they can just pay me a fucking salary without deducting several tens-of-thousands "for my benefit".
    • garciasn 1y ago
      Don't opt in to the health insurance from your employer then.
      • franktankbank 1y ago
        I'm obligated to purchase a 30K lottery ticket and lose year over year on the chance I get cancer.
        • BobaFloutist 1y ago
          You just described insurance as a whole. If you truly just want catastrophic coverage, get a dirt cheap catastrophic coverage plan from the marketplace and pay for meds and basic care out of pocket, you'll probably save money.
    • mrguyorama 1y ago
      Your employer will not pass any savings on to employees. When has that EVER happened in modern history? You will be taking a shadow pay cut instead. Or soooo much worse, they will cut your healthcare benefits, and instead pay you the balance of your portion of the premium, which isn't even close to what health benefits cost, and they will angrily expect you to thank them for the privilege.
      • franktankbank 1y ago
        Then the market would adjust and offer a rebate for not requiring insurance. You can make any claims against that but then you'd have to say something akin to "there is no market for employees". The money that my employer pays in premiums as indicated on my w2 must be going to the insurer surely, even if they are self-insured? If its going to a pool that my employer just gets to keep then why is that tax deductible and why would I trust them with my health insurance?
  • cryzinger 1y ago
    On the face of it, +1 and yes please, but only if we also see a push to get more/better ACA plans on the market. In some states the pickings are quite slim; last time I browsed ACA plans there were no PPO plans, for example. I would also accept Medicare For All if we're shooting big here :)
  • cpburns2009 1y ago
    A better solution to untie employment from health insurance would be to make premiums tax deductible. That way you would no longer be financially penalized for opting out of employer provided coverage. The cost would be no different than the pre-tax dollars the employer used to pay.
    • BobaFloutist 1y ago
      True but it would also be more of a hassle and would be subject to things like putting it in competition with the standard deduction, which doesn't seem to have happened with employer withholdings.
• throwway120385 1y ago
  That would be awesome, especially if we could get rid of the yearly Open Enrollment period. We could finally dump insurance providers that don't provide good service or who have bad networks without having to change jobs.
  • mrguyorama 1y ago
    And in the years it would take for a new system to shake out of this disruption and chaos, most people would be unable to access healthcare for basically anything. Isn't that just great? I too would love to disconnect healthcare from employment, but good god is this the wrong way to do it. But the current administration has shown for over 20 years that it is utterly incapable of building a solution, so they will just keep tearing down what little of this system is effective while pocketing billions.
    • franktankbank 1y ago
      If you had 20k extra in your pocket to cover regular shit and 10k to pay for a private health insurance covering catastrophic shit all the while regular hospital expenses went down (cough diagnosis, broken bones, etc etc) I think that would be a good thing. Right now you can see the effects of taking insurance out of the system by going to private practice that doesn't accept insurance. These fuckers way overstepped, not only are you paying several 10K for insurance you pay more when you go for minor issues.
  • coredog64 1y ago
    I can't speak to smaller employers who actually use the insurance capability, but larger employers (e.g. 500+ employees) are almost certainly self-insured. They bring the money for the loss pool and use the insurance company for claims service and network. On it's face it might seem like this isn't related to your complaint, but one of the consequences of self-insurance is that the employer essentially has a dial that they can turn that influences what level of service you get from the provider. If the pool is okay, then your employer might spring for additional benefits like free telehealth. If the pool is marginal, they might force you into a pharmacy plan. And if the pool is completely hosed, then the provider can get aggressive about requiring documentation to bring pool spend back in line.
• vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
  "employers have absorbed most of the cost increases " Health insurance is part of the total compensation so it's employees who have absorbed the cost by lower salary and higher deductibles, co-pays and whatever other ways insurers find to reduce their own cost.
• trashface 1y ago
  ACA plans are going up even more on average than employer based plans, at the same time subsidies are being reduced. The ACA exchanges are possibly doomed long term. People on that skew mid to lower income (but higher than medicaid), and many won't be able to afford the higher premiums - so they will drop off. So then there is the death spiral situation.
  • franktankbank 1y ago
    That's the insurers putting their finger on the scale so they can hold out for their employment health insurance scam.
• estimator7292 1y ago
  That thinking only applies to non-essential markets. The whole reason we're in this mess is that insurers (and government/lobbyists) realized that people will never stop getting sick or hurt and that people will pay literally anything for medical care because the alternative is gruesome, horrifying, painful death. The market simply cannot correct for this. It's just not possible. As fewer people can afford care, prices will go up to offset lost profit. The only organic correction that can happen is if so many people die that the entire economy collapses. So yes, we'll see a decrease in hiring, a decrease in the number of insured and/or healthy workers, and absolutely nothing will change. The public simply cannot squeeze insurance into lowering prices, nor can businesses. Only legislation can fix this problem. But since that seems to be ever more unlikely, the best solution is probably for the people to storm the insurance companies and put the CEOs on pikes for all of the death and destruction they've inflicted on our entire society. Democracy has utterly failed us and the only reasonable option left is incredible violence. That's the sad, sorry state that american society is left in today.
  • nradov 1y ago
    Commercial health plans already have very low profit margins, enforced by the ACA minimum medical loss ratio and competitive pressures. There's nothing much to squeeze there. If you analyze the actual cashflows, most of the money is ultimately going to things like provider wages, facilities operations, prescription drugs, and medical devices. Regardless of whether bills are paid by employers, consumers, or government, any attempt to reduce overall healthcare system costs will have to focus on those areas. And it's horrifying that you would advocate for violence on this issue so I flagged your comment.
    • silverquiet 1y ago
      I don't see advocacy, I see a regretful prediction (one that I think is quite possible). The horror is being caught in this system.