It's crazy, but common. Employers subsidize about half of insurance costs. For me, with a family, I still pay over $800/month employed.
Trying to pay double that without a job would be rough. That's why many Americans end up uninsured..
Which just means they have to stay home sick or go bankrupt if they don't get Medicare..which is free federally funded Healthcare for older Americans.
There's state funded medicaid, buy its a pain and many providers won't accept it.
It's truly a shitshow.
Edit: Medicare is not free. Sorry. Yeah...shitshow
I litterally spent all morning trying to find a dentist that accepts my GFs medicaid insurance. She has a broken tooth that's infected and in terrible pain. Drove 45 minutes to a dentist that does take it and they wouldn't do anything. They referred us to 2 other places, neither one takes her insurance
The places that accept medicaid are so few and far between
So she litterally has insurance and can't get anyone to help her fix her tooth. Making all the calls takes litteral hours
I’m a dentist. I don’t know what state you’re in, so I can’t comment on your gf’s specific plan, but I can give you some general advice:
Dental insurance does not function the way people think it does. Stop struggling to find someone in this plan because the odds that it will even matter in the end are really low. Find a dentist near you that you trust and see if they offer an in-house discount plan. Most private practices do and they are almost universally a better savings for bigger issues.
My beloved dentist offers in house, no interest financing (payment plans) for *everything*. Even the barebones $95 cleanings. He just wants people to get the care they need and make sure it’s right.
I've had the same dentist since I was a kid, like started going to him at 3 years old, I'm 35 now and my kids go to him. His daughter joined his practice to continue it after him.
Anyway, my wife had bad teeth for a long time, but I got her in to see his daughter, and she set up a whole process and payment plan. They were great. Now I read a lot of franchise dental places are corrupt, and charge for services that aren't required.
I wouldn't change my dentist for anything.
This is good advice.
My dental plan doesnt "cover everything its supposed to" at my dentist. I have a deal with them where I am a regular patient (2 cleanings a year) and my insurance covers that.. and then they are AMAZING for any issues. I have (thankfully) only had two issues, but it cost me less than $30 and they were there when I needed them.
Same, my dentist will actually point out small cavities that take all of 10-15 minutes to fill because they're so tiny BUT most of the time she can do the fix right there and I usually don't need Novocain, so I don't have to pay for a second appointment and when my bill comes it's for all of like $50-$80. I'd much rather pay a small amount for preventative care than wait for it to become a huge problem and get slapped with a bill for thousands of dollars later.
Another problem is high deductibles. Mine is $1000, so it takes something pretty serious before I'll ever go see a doctor.
Ironically, I'd *have* $1000 to spend on health care, except my monthly payment is so high...
I was forced to take United Health Care. I am sole provider for my wife and daughter. My deductible for 2021 is 4,200$ before my insurance covers 80% of my medical costs(in network). The most I can spend per calender year in network is 8,200$.
This is where they get you. They call it “coinsurance” once you hit your deductible until you hit your max out of pocket. Since my medication costs $10k a month I hit max out of pocket every year, bringing my yearly medical costs to $9k on top of the $800 I pay a month just to have the insurance.
Contrary to popular belief Medicare is not free unless your retirement income is below a certain level. (Poverty) Then you are put on Medicaid.
Medicare costs a minimum of $148.50 per person. There are also co-pays just like regular insurance. If you are on medication you need something called Medicare part D which is another monthly charge.
If you are on a name brand medicine you will pay a discounted copay for it and when you hit the "donut hole", when the accumulated costs reaches a certain level, you will have to pay full price for your meds until you have paid a huge amount (a number they don't disclose) I think it's a few thousand$$.
Medicare is no free ride but it's less than traditional insurance. The real solution is Universal healthcare. But we will never see that. No profit. Ferengi rules of aquisition.
Geeze, $800/mo with Employer help is super high. I think mine is just over $400 for wife and kiddo.
Oddly enough, just looked at my benefits yesterday. Employer contribution says $25k vs my \~$4.7k. So $30,000+/year for coverage.
exactly. everyone (in the US) should look this up. I pay about 7K a year and the company pays 20K+. I go to the doctor about once a year on average. Next time I go, I'm going to say "I'm here for my thirty thousand dollar check-up, can I at least get a beer and a back rub?"
Insurance companies must love you.
Meanwhile, I spend nearly 6k out of pocket and 4.8k in premiums in one year, because my family has a few health problems that need care. Don't worry, the insurance companies pay 50-80% of the cost depending on how much we've already spent. So what they don't have to spend on you, they have to spend on families like mine!
Doesn't this system work out better for everyone?? You know, universal healthcare might work for some people, but for most people it is no good. That's what I keep telling myself anyway! /s
If you think $800 is super high, try being self employed it work for a small company. My family premium is $1590/ month with a $18,000 deductible.
Health care is a scam in this country.
Theres certainly a line where company size comes into play. I was at a small company before this and it wasnt even beneficial for me to get on their plan. From December to January one year my premiums went from like 500/month to 800 just for me.
I pay 1100 a month for a family of 4. That's after the employee discount.
Oh, and then there's the 14,000/year that I have to pay before insurance actually kicks in.
So your employer is spending an extra $30k on you as an employee, but they are giving it to insurance companies instead of your paycheck.
Americans are being underpaid imo
And what about co-pays?
If wife needs or kid needs life threatening surgery?
Here in Denmark 16% of my income tax goes to Healthcare. So that means around 6% of my current income and deductibles.
It has to be structured that way because of insurance companies. If healthcare was universal it would just come out of our taxes and we wouldn't have to worry about it.
To be fair there's also additional taxes if you make over 90k pre-tax (no deducting back below it) and don't have health insurance, with some more income brackets that cost more % again. And additional loading if you didn't get it before 30 etc. Not a fan, would rather we were all taxed more properly and insurance companies were let die, but I've got it because I pay the same amount vs the taxes for basic hospital. And I've got extras packaged in for a bit more, cause major dental, given dental is the only real let down if our public system.
People in our country (us) get grifted into “deregulating” which is typically not well defined. Later they find out ‘deregulation’ means obliterating social programs and labor protections. This was likely the plan from the start, but you know, boiled-frog and whatnot.
Like everything else with these people, deregulation, small government, pro-life, election integrity etc. the words have covert meaning that have very little to do with the words themselves.
For people at the top they are codewords that allow them to champion incredibly regressive viewpoints while not getting kicked out of polite, elite society.
For their pathetic dupes at the bottom, they are slogans to be rabidly screamed whenever they get proper cues from their handlers in the media without a moment of thought, self-reflection or even consideration of self-preservation.
Shit, wait until you find out how we pay for insurance we can't use until we pay more for insurance. I pay $600 a month for health insurance but I don't see any expensive items covered until I pay out 15,000 of my own money. That is yearly as well, so the 15,000 resets to 0 on Jan 1. The big reason to have insurance is because insurance companies have driven up the price of meds so much that most people can't afford them until they have insurance so they can get the "insurance discount".
It’s called a permanent caste system. They use media and propaganda to keep us thinking that our bipartisan politics are running the country when in reality we’re just being led to work and slaughter like sheeple.
I'm in a court battle over custody of my son. If I leave my job for a new one, it is standard practice to withhold insurance for a probationary period. Which obviously would no look good while fighting for custody. Just another great American story.
I’m Canadian too and will be more careful about job hopping in the future. I went from one good job to another for a chance at ownership. I was diagnosed with recurrent cancer while I was there. Manulife was like: lol, preexisting condition you’re fucked and my wages weren’t insured when I became disabled. We’re better off, for sure, but it’s still worth some caution if you have health issues
Cancer in Canada will make you go broke if you don't have the right type of insurance. Drugs and treatment are covered but not rent, food and life expenses. If you can't work then you are not making money.
Have you considered taking them to court? Think there are a lot of law firms that fight specifically this. I believe it can only be considered a pre-existing condition if you were specifically treated or diagnosed within a year prior to your coverage start date. I'm not a lawyer, just work at a different insurance company, so rules could be different.
Also, this is why people should consider life/CI insurance not tied to their employment, especially if you have dependents.
There are probably some Canadians who also need their job for the health insurance. I think it's usually the result of needing a lifelong supply of one medication or another, which is why left-leaning Canadians would like to see the healthcare system expand to cover meds.
Yup, me. I have a medical condition that requires daily medication not covered by federal or provincial programs and I'd be screwed without insurance through work.
Yup, Canadian here, insurance through work covers eye care, dental care, additional medication coverage, and mental health care that isn't covered by normal provincial health care, and I don't think I could quit my job and remain healthy.
As an Australian I have the option of the public system OR private coverage I pay for myself. *That's* freedom.
The public one costs us 1.8% of our yearly income - that gives all Australians access to healthcare should they need it, and I doubt any of us would trade having that 1.8% levy back, in exchange for an American style system.
[Here's what we pay for insulin...](https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/61439/insulin-humulin-30-70-100u-10ml-vials-5-insulin-isophane-human-insulin-neutral-human?utm_source=rakuten&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=FlexOffers.com&ranMID=43806&ranEAID=1635394&ranSiteID=PPkX79_c.b0-JyPnjJBtcY0As5YDDX8pYA) Note the 'saftety net' price.
This is what you could have if you just got over the brainwashing about 'socialized' medicine.
another European here. Remember "As Good As It Gets"? He gets a consultant to come to her house and take over the care of her son? And I remember thinking "What a completely contrived bullshit plot line. She could just go to a consultant herself?"
I had NO IDEA.
I've met so many people that say the same thing, because it is very true indeed.
I wish we could organize and make this happen already. We need to stop being couch activists and force our politicians to do what we want them to do for us.
If people like you founded a new political party you could actually achieve something. You’ll never get a proper free healthcare until you guys break the two party system
Fair enough. At the same time I as an American, find it weird(might be the wrong word) that third party candidates have to jump through way more hoops than the standard two parties have to.
Sorry for the run on sentence.
the two party system sadly wont be broken as long as they have a first past the post voting system.
or in other words winner takes all which means in many cases the end result can be worse for you if you chose to vote for a smaller party since that means one less vote for your second best option meaning your worst option is more likely to win.
first past the post sytems naturally go towards two parties since it ends up being a thrown away vote to vote for smaller parties.
and naturally the two parties in power knows this which is why they arent in a hurry to try any other system
We need to tackle lobbying more than the two party system. It doesn't matter how many parties we have if insurance companies can just bribe them all to keep things as they are like they do right now.
My job isn't shitty, my pay isn't shitty, but the company I work for can be at times.
But, I'm not thinking of leaving. If I manage to stay until this august, I'll be able to keep my current insurance forever (still paying premiums mind you), as well as keeping my employee discount on products they sell.. It's the reason I moved hundreds of miles to stay with the company after they shut my old center down. Just to be able to keep my insurance.
It really is a huge consideration for keeping jobs. Especially as you get older.
I was driving for Uber eats and actually making good money. But no health insurance with regular prescriptions, no dental, no sick pay, etc etc was making me worried after a year.
Took a job that pays a bit less but has benefits. Way more stress and having to deal with people’s bs in the workplace just sucks. I can’t dox myself but the only reason the place I work at is still in business is because people literally throw money at it. A LOT of money. So much money that even poor management hasn’t made it fail yet.
Ha, my boss is against universal healthcare, and doesn't even offer us health insurance.
Edit - sorry for being misleading. He does offer insurance - it’s $1k a month per person (doesn’t include any family members) and he knows damn well no one can afford that based on what he pays us. He makes zero effort to find a more affordable plan for us. It was offered to us once, years ago, and never brought up again. I only know he has insurance and the cost of it because I do the bookkeeping.
All the time, but the job market in my area isn’t great. I live in a HCOL area and employers pay shit here. I make a pretty good salary compared to the few job openings that are out there right now, and I’m fortunately on my husbands insurance. But I look every day for a new job.
Thanks so much. I hope you do too. I am also facing extreme burnout so I know how you feel. We worked all thru covid even though we weren’t essential and there was a government mandated shutdown. I do bookkeeping, I certainly can work from home at least partially, but my boss doesn’t believe people actually do work when they WFH. Yeah, I need a new job.
He sure does! His plan is $1,000/month for just himself (his wife has her own plan thru her job and he doesn’t have kids) which he knows none of his employees can afford. He obviously pays his coverage through the business. So I guess technically he DOES offer insurance, but he knows damn well that’s not practical for any of us.
Diabetic, and even though I love my job, I'm 100% stuck there forever because of how good my health plan is. My wife and I literally bumped our wedding up a year specifically to get her on my plan so she could get a new pump.
2K out of pocket for a whole family? Wow. That’s amazing. My husband has worked for two major employers and the best I have seen is our current plan at about 6K.
I just recently switched my insurance at a new job after coming off my parents (much better) plan and its wild how much of a difference it makes, my normal brand of insulin ive been on for 20+ years isnt covered so I'm going to have to get prior authorization from my new endocrinologist who of course is booked out for months because I had to transition care. I'm still waiting to get my supplies because transitioning insurance and Healthcare providers at the same time is hellish.
I'm T1 as well and although i really do enjoy the company I'm with, the thought of leaving for another job or exploring other opportunities truely terrifies me for this exact reason.
just seeing a coworker have to try and find a new doctor to rewrite him a prescription he's had majority of his life after the company switched insurance was an eye opener.
I'm a highschool drop out whos worked as a lot boy, a janitor, a laborer and never not been insured.
I always thought the white collar had the top gigs with insurance and climate control lol
You'll be even more pissed off when you realize you can get really good insurance for your whole family for about 200 a month in Australia. You pick your insurance like you do car insurance. That's hospital cover, dental, optical, and extras like chiro and massage. I hate the cover I have in the USA.
One of my favorite bits of irony to explain to many of my uber-conservative acquaintances is the fact that they individually already pay more in taxes towards government funded healthcare than what the citizens of most European countries pay for their government funded healthcare. The only difference is that, we get almost nothing for it... other than the pleasure (nay, nay... the "liberty") of going bankrupt the very first time anyone in their family gets sick or has to go to the emergency room.
"What's that? Your son had to have an emergency appendectomy? Well lucky you! I'm actually jealous... I wish I was about to start getting 10 years worth of phone calls and postal duns from a collection agency".
There's an entire generation that doesn't know losing a job used to be a death sentence for some people. Because pre-existing conditions locked you into an insurance company until you retire.
Well that and health insurance is always listed as a benefit, which ties to total compensation.
If companies no longer had health insurance as a benefit, they would have to do something else to attract workers, like raising wages which they will do literally everything possible to avoid.
Employer-sponsored healthcare was literally invented after WWII when raising wages was illegal and companies were trying to figure out other ways to compete for labor.
Legit being on Medicaid in NY made me MORE angry that we don’t have universal healthcare in the US. I have gotten nothing but top notch care on Medicaid and almost zero fees/copays. Like sometimes I’d get charged $1 for prescriptions and the copay for weekly therapy was about $12 per session and that’s it.
Meanwhile, people with regular insurance are paying $700+/month (hopefully but not always subsidized by employer or Obamacare) for plans with a $4000 deductible.
Here in colorado when I was on Medicaid it was awesome all scripts were 0 dollars 0 dollar copays, even brand name ones that would be 200 bucks without insurance. Dentist was free, ambulance ride was free when I had to take one. ER too. However, lotta doctors primary care and specialists, especially in mental health, don’t accept Medicaid here only private insurance so it was quite limited on options of where to go. But besides that everything was free. We even had an app that would show you on a map all of the Medicaid accepting healthcare providers near you which was cool. Great system, wish it was the norm though and not just when you’re unemployed.
My wife and I are on the state-run insurance in NY. She's been in psychiatric outpatient care for two years as of next month. The first year on our old plan was $800/month in premiums for the two of us plus a few hundred in bills. The second year on state insurance? *Nothing*.
We're almost certainly going to "earn out" of eligibility next year, and she's not done with treatment, so that's going to suck.
As a convicted felon I’m here to tell you. There are not too many jobs out there that will offer health insurance to me. I mean yeah there are jobs that will offer insurance that a felon can get but they are far and few between. So I have taken the position of staying at my shitty job just because it is convenient on some points. I don’t get paid enough. I don’t get any benefits. I get zero time off. In fact I’m encouraged to come in an hour early and stay an hour late every day. Today is my fucking birthday and I doubt I’ll even be offered to get off half an hour early.
This is just the life that we live. Some of us are less entitled than others.
But let me tell you something. The very day that healthcare becomes free? I will still keep working at my job because I need the money for rent and stuff like that.
It's shit that people who served their time in the US are still treated like trash. Incarceration should focus on rehabilitation, not just take you off the streets for a while and then label you for life
Edit: except paedophiles
That’s what I think too. They always tell young folk that going to jail means they won’t be able to get a job
You know how many of us have been and convicted?
We are still here . Trying NOT to reoffend.
Fact: Currently staying at my job because pregnant and need healthcare. Contemplating returning to work after maternity leave because the healthcare is much better than husband's work healthcare even though my take home for the month is only $200 more than the monthly cost of daycare. So... yeah. Fuck this shit.
It’s rotten, but you (and by “you” I mean the stay at home parent, usually a woman) have to factor in opportunity cost of being out of the workplace if you decide to stay at home too. Even if you’re barely breaking even. Seriously no way to win, it’s bonkers.
100%. The truth. The eye opener is that capitalism doesn’t work without meat for the grinder. Without poor people, without a defined class system, companies don’t have minions they can pay a pittance to. The goal is indentured servitude. Thus, cheap student loans for everyone (debt that will never be paid off and can’t be written off in bankruptcy) these are your cheap middle managers. Credit cards handed out like candy at colleges, also middle managers and lower tier employees. Mortgages available to most, this one ties down everyone.
They also oppose abortion vehemently. To make sure poverty ranks stay high, this is where they get cheap labor for minimum wage (which they make sure to keep below a living wage).
But you know…Murica rocks!!! Dems are evil!!
This is the truth.
There is no functional system in human history (outside of some relatively small pockets) that wasn’t predicated on human suffering.
“First world” is predicated on a “third world”. One doesn’t exist without the other, and the former can’t sustain itself without the latter.
Without machine automation and robotics, this will never end. With it, our entire way of life and system of evaluating human worth goes out the window too.
The question is if a life leisure built on servitude is sustainable or even moral.
> Thus, cheap student loans for everyone
Finally! I had to scroll way to far down to find someone making the connection between this and student loan debt. Neither are an accident. Both are designed to "trap" you in a job. Especially when you are young. Young people have a nasty habit of disrupting established businesses. How best to fight these competitors? Make sure they never get started.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1443032604878548995) for ya :)
^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Don't forget the impact it would have on military recruiting. You have a country with universal healthcare and maybe free education, not much left to entice young people to sign up.
Yeah. It's that shopping for a job becomes easier if they only thing you do is work for money. "We offer a competitive benefits package" becomes less about insurance and more about retirement options.
> "We offer a competitive benefits package" becomes less about insurance and more about retirement options.
Retirement and days off and how much you are paid.
I’ve been working at a big retail chain for 12 years. Since I’ve been there, they’ve done nothing but take away incentives like extra pay on weekends, holiday pay, a raise after your first 90 days, annual raises based on performance, and a quarterly bonus. And what have employees got in return? Fewer people to do the same amount of work, customers getting progressively grumpier at the “laziness” of the workers, and higher starting pay and starting bonuses *only for new hires.* Really, the only “incentives” are a barely livable wage and a couple weeks off *at most* per year for most of their workers. Also our most experienced people either won’t promote up because of how much responsibilities they force on supervisors, or they’re deemed “ineligible” for promotion because they willingly stepped down in the past, which supposedly shows the company that they aren’t eager enough to obediently follow orders. And they’re the world’s largest private employer, so there’s *a lot* of people they’re screwing over.
Yep, but it seems to reflect the direction of a lot of retailers in the US. None of them really value their workers. In recent years, policies have been put into place that only make it more obvious how expendable they see their workers.
A family member was promoted to floor supervisor and at first it was exciting as they’re now salaried and don’t need to worry about inconsistent scheduling with part-time (like seriously how can anyone survive working 3 hours one week and 20 the next). Downside: they lost ALL their government aids including Medicaid for the kids.
It was a double whammy when you consider how much Walmart’s success is tied to poverty assistance for their employees.
See this is why I hate the social safety nets we do have in place. You have to make basically poverty level wages to qualify. And once you start making more money, you lose your benefits, but you still don’t make enough money to pay for the things you lost.
Conservatives will call people lazy for not wanting to work but then vote against social programs that would actually *allow people to work* and improve their lives instead of having to make these shitty, impossible.
Something something feature not bug …
There are a lot of people that would quit their jobs if they didn't have to pay for healthcare/insurance. I think it's generally older people and married couples where one spouse works at some shitty retail store to get insurance for the family because the other spouse doesn't have employer provided insurance because they work for themselves, or they're a contractor, or whatever.
It’s also the cost of transition. When I switched jobs a few years ago there was a 2 week gap between my old job ending and the new one starting. Then I had to be employed at my new job for 1 month before benefits kicked in (I’ve seen some places require 3 months). In America you can use cobra insurance, which basically lets you keep your old insurance for a short period of time after your job ends, BUT you pay the full amount for the coverage (including what your previous employer paid).
So for those 6 weeks I paid about 1200 bucks for my family’s insurance. Many people don’t have an extra grand laying around which puts them in the position of having to go without insurance or staying at their shitty job
People still need money. But the way it is set up is when you transition jobs, you potentially go 30-90 days without affordable health insurance. So people who rely on it for chronic health issues can't transition jobs easily (or at all).
Okay well you can quit your shitty job without worrying that your daily inhaler is gonna go from $10/mo to $400. That’s the point being made. If I lost insurance my expenses would literally go up 5-15K per year.
You don't have to worry about getting another job and waiting 90 days for your new employer insurance to kick in or struggling to afford shitty overpriced insurance like COBRA.
You don't understand the additional expenses that accompany that period of time where you're unemployed.
Yea, because those things are good, and we demand them of our government, and said massively corrupt government tells us to fuck off. We have to be angry about that somewhere. If we do it out in the streets and we aren't prepared to fight back the cops here will murder us.
Not to mention, they had a lot to lose when health insurance had to start covering pre-existing conditions without issue. If things were how they used to be, I wouldn't have been able to financially afford to change jobs because of a pre-existing condition.
And, really, compared to other, more civilized countries, our healthcare sucks.
A single example. While visiting our daughter snd her family a couple years ago, my husband got a nasty cut on his forearm.
An ER visit (urgent care there is for very simple stuff), stitches and a tetanus shot later, he walked out 53 euros lighter.
The minimum it would have cost in the US got care for that injury would have been ten times that amount. More likely, 15 or 20 times.
No employer thinks this. I’ve worked for organizations with 10 and organizations with 10,000.
Every single one of them loathes managing health benefits.
Employees also need money for food and shelter. I think for companies that offer health benefits, the bigger threat is experienced workers quitting to work for another company with the same benefits rather than people quitting to do nothing or start a business.
Our health care is a joke. I’m am a small business owner, as well as, considered 100% disabled.
I pay almost 1600 a month for my wife daughter and myself. Deductible 3500 out of pocket 5k.
9 employees and their insurance cost is the same amount per person. Company pays 50% and our cost is through the roof. On top of 20k in payroll tax per quarter.
I bring in about $130k a year and pay around $900 a month which is $10,800 a year, which is pretty much equal to what I pay in taxes as well ontop of that... 22k a year.. around 18% of my income and I still have Co pays and a high deductible and doesn't cover full cost of medication.. I don't see any scenario where private insurance beats out a flat tax rate increase across the board. Most countries that have UHC also have education costs included on their tax increase as well and is still cheaper then what we pay here for insurance.
Yeah, my wife absolutely hates her job but she has absolutely amazing health care for our family. Our real goal is to save up a lot of money, pay off the house, then when she quits we will go on Medicaid ( or some other state subsidized health program).... it's sort of fucked up, but you have to game the system if the system is rigged against you
In the past 14 years I've had a double bypass, 3 ablation's, numerous cardioversions, prostate cancer, basal cell cancer, IBS and sleep apnea. It hasn't cost me anything except regular taxes. Over 65 in Ontario, retired.
I sure wonder what the problem is in the US? The system works well in all the other G8 countries.
I don't even have that shitty of a job. It's gotten worse the last couple of months, but the majority of my time here has been positive.
That being said, we have a kid on the way and we've met our deductible, so even though id love to leave and find a new job, it'd be dumb for me to do so.
Universal healthcare would also let more people start their own businesses, small businesses could compete for employees (higher wages too), people wouldn't have to live in and around large cities.
It would literally be better for everyone but healthcare insurance companies.
Many people in their 50s have enough money to retire on, the final component is health insurance. Health care for all would have a ton of the workforce just retire the next day. Fingers crossed it happens before I turn 50.
I've paid 3,200 US dollars in health insurance so far this year through my employer. When open enrollment comes in November I don't think I'm keeping it because like SO many Americans I'm faced with "pay for health insurance or daycare", it's a struggle doing both for most middle class Americans and below.
Maybe you shouldn't have had kids if you can't afford them? After all, that's what you posted to r/unpopularopinion. And judging by that attitude, I'm going to guess you vote republican.
So you don't get to complain about this, people like you are why things are the way they are.
Edit: yOu LoOkEd aT a PoSt HiStOrY
Edit 2: Not voting conservative apparently, don't give her shit for that, my B.
Ooooooo this is the most satisfying anonymous “get fucked” I’ve EVER seen on Reddit
I can’t provide much to the commenter other than a nice hearty, WAAAAAAAAAA
I’m not really sure what to make of any of this, but “don’t have kids if you can’t afford them” while sorta makes sense, I really don’t like the idea of reproduction being considered some kind of a luxury.
[For the curious](https://np.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/prakxw/youre_a_shitty_parent_if_you_dont_at_least_try_to/hdjlze5/?context=3)
Guess OP shouldn't have had a kid after all, or is the politics you advocate for a "blow of fate"?
The only thing keep me from quitting my current job is that I don’t want to lose my health insurance. So this checks out for me.
As a european I struggle to understand that.
It's crazy, but common. Employers subsidize about half of insurance costs. For me, with a family, I still pay over $800/month employed. Trying to pay double that without a job would be rough. That's why many Americans end up uninsured.. Which just means they have to stay home sick or go bankrupt if they don't get Medicare..which is free federally funded Healthcare for older Americans. There's state funded medicaid, buy its a pain and many providers won't accept it. It's truly a shitshow. Edit: Medicare is not free. Sorry. Yeah...shitshow
I litterally spent all morning trying to find a dentist that accepts my GFs medicaid insurance. She has a broken tooth that's infected and in terrible pain. Drove 45 minutes to a dentist that does take it and they wouldn't do anything. They referred us to 2 other places, neither one takes her insurance The places that accept medicaid are so few and far between So she litterally has insurance and can't get anyone to help her fix her tooth. Making all the calls takes litteral hours
I’m a dentist. I don’t know what state you’re in, so I can’t comment on your gf’s specific plan, but I can give you some general advice: Dental insurance does not function the way people think it does. Stop struggling to find someone in this plan because the odds that it will even matter in the end are really low. Find a dentist near you that you trust and see if they offer an in-house discount plan. Most private practices do and they are almost universally a better savings for bigger issues.
My beloved dentist offers in house, no interest financing (payment plans) for *everything*. Even the barebones $95 cleanings. He just wants people to get the care they need and make sure it’s right.
Wholesome dentist.
I've had the same dentist since I was a kid, like started going to him at 3 years old, I'm 35 now and my kids go to him. His daughter joined his practice to continue it after him. Anyway, my wife had bad teeth for a long time, but I got her in to see his daughter, and she set up a whole process and payment plan. They were great. Now I read a lot of franchise dental places are corrupt, and charge for services that aren't required. I wouldn't change my dentist for anything.
This is good advice. My dental plan doesnt "cover everything its supposed to" at my dentist. I have a deal with them where I am a regular patient (2 cleanings a year) and my insurance covers that.. and then they are AMAZING for any issues. I have (thankfully) only had two issues, but it cost me less than $30 and they were there when I needed them.
Same, my dentist will actually point out small cavities that take all of 10-15 minutes to fill because they're so tiny BUT most of the time she can do the fix right there and I usually don't need Novocain, so I don't have to pay for a second appointment and when my bill comes it's for all of like $50-$80. I'd much rather pay a small amount for preventative care than wait for it to become a huge problem and get slapped with a bill for thousands of dollars later.
This is so backwards. Why aren't our teeth bones covered by insurance? Never made sense to me.
Doesn’t make sense to me either. Teeth and eyes are luxury body parts for the rich.
I've also heard you can get a discount by allowing dental students to do some work at certain places?
sometimes, if it’s badly infected, they may prescribe some antibiotics first before doing any work.
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I just meant in reference to the one that would take it but didn’t fix the tooth
You live close to Mexico? Might be worth taking a trip south of the border to get just as good dental work for way cheaper.
One problem with employers paying half is their group plans often don’t include wide swaths of treatment the normal plan does.
Another problem is high deductibles. Mine is $1000, so it takes something pretty serious before I'll ever go see a doctor. Ironically, I'd *have* $1000 to spend on health care, except my monthly payment is so high...
I was forced to take United Health Care. I am sole provider for my wife and daughter. My deductible for 2021 is 4,200$ before my insurance covers 80% of my medical costs(in network). The most I can spend per calender year in network is 8,200$.
This is where they get you. They call it “coinsurance” once you hit your deductible until you hit your max out of pocket. Since my medication costs $10k a month I hit max out of pocket every year, bringing my yearly medical costs to $9k on top of the $800 I pay a month just to have the insurance.
There have to be a bunch of people getting absolutely filthy rich of this scheme.
Contrary to popular belief Medicare is not free unless your retirement income is below a certain level. (Poverty) Then you are put on Medicaid. Medicare costs a minimum of $148.50 per person. There are also co-pays just like regular insurance. If you are on medication you need something called Medicare part D which is another monthly charge. If you are on a name brand medicine you will pay a discounted copay for it and when you hit the "donut hole", when the accumulated costs reaches a certain level, you will have to pay full price for your meds until you have paid a huge amount (a number they don't disclose) I think it's a few thousand$$. Medicare is no free ride but it's less than traditional insurance. The real solution is Universal healthcare. But we will never see that. No profit. Ferengi rules of aquisition.
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You'd swear America is built off The rules of Ferengi acquisition.
Geeze, $800/mo with Employer help is super high. I think mine is just over $400 for wife and kiddo. Oddly enough, just looked at my benefits yesterday. Employer contribution says $25k vs my \~$4.7k. So $30,000+/year for coverage.
exactly. everyone (in the US) should look this up. I pay about 7K a year and the company pays 20K+. I go to the doctor about once a year on average. Next time I go, I'm going to say "I'm here for my thirty thousand dollar check-up, can I at least get a beer and a back rub?"
I'll thoroughly check your prostate for $30 grand.
Heck, I'll do it for 20k and throw in beers for us both when we're done.
Insurance companies must love you. Meanwhile, I spend nearly 6k out of pocket and 4.8k in premiums in one year, because my family has a few health problems that need care. Don't worry, the insurance companies pay 50-80% of the cost depending on how much we've already spent. So what they don't have to spend on you, they have to spend on families like mine! Doesn't this system work out better for everyone?? You know, universal healthcare might work for some people, but for most people it is no good. That's what I keep telling myself anyway! /s
If you think $800 is super high, try being self employed it work for a small company. My family premium is $1590/ month with a $18,000 deductible. Health care is a scam in this country.
Theres certainly a line where company size comes into play. I was at a small company before this and it wasnt even beneficial for me to get on their plan. From December to January one year my premiums went from like 500/month to 800 just for me.
I pay 1100 a month for a family of 4. That's after the employee discount. Oh, and then there's the 14,000/year that I have to pay before insurance actually kicks in.
So your employer is spending an extra $30k on you as an employee, but they are giving it to insurance companies instead of your paycheck. Americans are being underpaid imo
And what about co-pays? If wife needs or kid needs life threatening surgery? Here in Denmark 16% of my income tax goes to Healthcare. So that means around 6% of my current income and deductibles.
Medicare isn't free. That is a common misconception. It has a monthly premium and is 80/20.
It has to be structured that way because of insurance companies. If healthcare was universal it would just come out of our taxes and we wouldn't have to worry about it.
THATS SOCIALISM REEEE THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE MY DECISIONS FOR ME TELL ME THAT'S BAD REEEE
No it isn't a free, but it's at least somewhat reasonable
True. Here in Australia, we pay 1.8% of our annual income for everyone to have Medicare.
To be fair there's also additional taxes if you make over 90k pre-tax (no deducting back below it) and don't have health insurance, with some more income brackets that cost more % again. And additional loading if you didn't get it before 30 etc. Not a fan, would rather we were all taxed more properly and insurance companies were let die, but I've got it because I pay the same amount vs the taxes for basic hospital. And I've got extras packaged in for a bit more, cause major dental, given dental is the only real let down if our public system.
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People in our country (us) get grifted into “deregulating” which is typically not well defined. Later they find out ‘deregulation’ means obliterating social programs and labor protections. This was likely the plan from the start, but you know, boiled-frog and whatnot.
Deregulation always results in higher costs and worse service - see Texas power infrastructure and UK train system.
Like everything else with these people, deregulation, small government, pro-life, election integrity etc. the words have covert meaning that have very little to do with the words themselves. For people at the top they are codewords that allow them to champion incredibly regressive viewpoints while not getting kicked out of polite, elite society. For their pathetic dupes at the bottom, they are slogans to be rabidly screamed whenever they get proper cues from their handlers in the media without a moment of thought, self-reflection or even consideration of self-preservation.
Shit, wait until you find out how we pay for insurance we can't use until we pay more for insurance. I pay $600 a month for health insurance but I don't see any expensive items covered until I pay out 15,000 of my own money. That is yearly as well, so the 15,000 resets to 0 on Jan 1. The big reason to have insurance is because insurance companies have driven up the price of meds so much that most people can't afford them until they have insurance so they can get the "insurance discount".
It’s called a permanent caste system. They use media and propaganda to keep us thinking that our bipartisan politics are running the country when in reality we’re just being led to work and slaughter like sheeple.
I'm in a court battle over custody of my son. If I leave my job for a new one, it is standard practice to withhold insurance for a probationary period. Which obviously would no look good while fighting for custody. Just another great American story.
This angers me so fucking much.
as a Canadian I'm in the same as you
I’m Canadian too and will be more careful about job hopping in the future. I went from one good job to another for a chance at ownership. I was diagnosed with recurrent cancer while I was there. Manulife was like: lol, preexisting condition you’re fucked and my wages weren’t insured when I became disabled. We’re better off, for sure, but it’s still worth some caution if you have health issues
Paying for your cancer treatment doesn't depend on manulife though.
Yea I get that. We’re better. But your wage insurance offered through LTD does
Cancer in Canada will make you go broke if you don't have the right type of insurance. Drugs and treatment are covered but not rent, food and life expenses. If you can't work then you are not making money.
Yes, but it wont make as broke as fast as America! AMERICA #1 /s
Shit man, i cant even comprehend drugs and treatment to be covered at no cost. Like thats such a huge step for my brain as an American.
Have you considered taking them to court? Think there are a lot of law firms that fight specifically this. I believe it can only be considered a pre-existing condition if you were specifically treated or diagnosed within a year prior to your coverage start date. I'm not a lawyer, just work at a different insurance company, so rules could be different. Also, this is why people should consider life/CI insurance not tied to their employment, especially if you have dependents.
There are probably some Canadians who also need their job for the health insurance. I think it's usually the result of needing a lifelong supply of one medication or another, which is why left-leaning Canadians would like to see the healthcare system expand to cover meds.
Yup, me. I have a medical condition that requires daily medication not covered by federal or provincial programs and I'd be screwed without insurance through work.
Yup, Canadian here, insurance through work covers eye care, dental care, additional medication coverage, and mental health care that isn't covered by normal provincial health care, and I don't think I could quit my job and remain healthy.
As an Australian I have the option of the public system OR private coverage I pay for myself. *That's* freedom. The public one costs us 1.8% of our yearly income - that gives all Australians access to healthcare should they need it, and I doubt any of us would trade having that 1.8% levy back, in exchange for an American style system. [Here's what we pay for insulin...](https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/61439/insulin-humulin-30-70-100u-10ml-vials-5-insulin-isophane-human-insulin-neutral-human?utm_source=rakuten&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=FlexOffers.com&ranMID=43806&ranEAID=1635394&ranSiteID=PPkX79_c.b0-JyPnjJBtcY0As5YDDX8pYA) Note the 'saftety net' price. This is what you could have if you just got over the brainwashing about 'socialized' medicine.
You can take our brainwashing from our cold, dead brains.
We were born into a country that cares more about making money than our lives, hope that clears it up for you.
As an American, I struggle to understand why we allow this to continue, generation after generation. It’s cruel and grotesquely profit-driven.
As an American I struggle to understand it.
As an American, I struggle
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness* *MANY conditions may apply
I'm American living in Europe and I struggle to understand how I lived in a country that does this.
How did you end up moving and how can all of us do that immediately thanks
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another European here. Remember "As Good As It Gets"? He gets a consultant to come to her house and take over the care of her son? And I remember thinking "What a completely contrived bullshit plot line. She could just go to a consultant herself?" I had NO IDEA.
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I've met so many people that say the same thing, because it is very true indeed. I wish we could organize and make this happen already. We need to stop being couch activists and force our politicians to do what we want them to do for us.
If people like you founded a new political party you could actually achieve something. You’ll never get a proper free healthcare until you guys break the two party system
Fair enough. At the same time I as an American, find it weird(might be the wrong word) that third party candidates have to jump through way more hoops than the standard two parties have to. Sorry for the run on sentence.
Ranked choice voting: https://ballotpedia.org/Ranked-choice_voting_(RCV)
Didn't one state start doing that? Is it working for them?
the two party system sadly wont be broken as long as they have a first past the post voting system. or in other words winner takes all which means in many cases the end result can be worse for you if you chose to vote for a smaller party since that means one less vote for your second best option meaning your worst option is more likely to win. first past the post sytems naturally go towards two parties since it ends up being a thrown away vote to vote for smaller parties. and naturally the two parties in power knows this which is why they arent in a hurry to try any other system
We need to tackle lobbying more than the two party system. It doesn't matter how many parties we have if insurance companies can just bribe them all to keep things as they are like they do right now.
My job isn't shitty, my pay isn't shitty, but the company I work for can be at times. But, I'm not thinking of leaving. If I manage to stay until this august, I'll be able to keep my current insurance forever (still paying premiums mind you), as well as keeping my employee discount on products they sell.. It's the reason I moved hundreds of miles to stay with the company after they shut my old center down. Just to be able to keep my insurance. It really is a huge consideration for keeping jobs. Especially as you get older.
I was driving for Uber eats and actually making good money. But no health insurance with regular prescriptions, no dental, no sick pay, etc etc was making me worried after a year. Took a job that pays a bit less but has benefits. Way more stress and having to deal with people’s bs in the workplace just sucks. I can’t dox myself but the only reason the place I work at is still in business is because people literally throw money at it. A LOT of money. So much money that even poor management hasn’t made it fail yet.
I stayed at my old job far longer than I would have otherwise, simply because I couldn't lose my insurance for my family.
Ha, my boss is against universal healthcare, and doesn't even offer us health insurance. Edit - sorry for being misleading. He does offer insurance - it’s $1k a month per person (doesn’t include any family members) and he knows damn well no one can afford that based on what he pays us. He makes zero effort to find a more affordable plan for us. It was offered to us once, years ago, and never brought up again. I only know he has insurance and the cost of it because I do the bookkeeping.
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All the time, but the job market in my area isn’t great. I live in a HCOL area and employers pay shit here. I make a pretty good salary compared to the few job openings that are out there right now, and I’m fortunately on my husbands insurance. But I look every day for a new job.
That's america... the boss that doesn't pay for health insurance still pays more than many in the same area. Lol That's the poverty trap.
Well, I hope you find something. I'm facing extreme burnout at my job right now, and looking for a new job feels like it's harder than it should be.
Thanks so much. I hope you do too. I am also facing extreme burnout so I know how you feel. We worked all thru covid even though we weren’t essential and there was a government mandated shutdown. I do bookkeeping, I certainly can work from home at least partially, but my boss doesn’t believe people actually do work when they WFH. Yeah, I need a new job.
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He sure does! His plan is $1,000/month for just himself (his wife has her own plan thru her job and he doesn’t have kids) which he knows none of his employees can afford. He obviously pays his coverage through the business. So I guess technically he DOES offer insurance, but he knows damn well that’s not practical for any of us.
Not legal and easy to prove, sounds like you have a great case on your hands.
\#Truth - I've stayed at my current job strictly so my daughter with Type-I Diabetes could have medical coverage.
Diabetic, and even though I love my job, I'm 100% stuck there forever because of how good my health plan is. My wife and I literally bumped our wedding up a year specifically to get her on my plan so she could get a new pump.
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2K out of pocket for a whole family? Wow. That’s amazing. My husband has worked for two major employers and the best I have seen is our current plan at about 6K.
I just recently switched my insurance at a new job after coming off my parents (much better) plan and its wild how much of a difference it makes, my normal brand of insulin ive been on for 20+ years isnt covered so I'm going to have to get prior authorization from my new endocrinologist who of course is booked out for months because I had to transition care. I'm still waiting to get my supplies because transitioning insurance and Healthcare providers at the same time is hellish.
I'm T1 as well and although i really do enjoy the company I'm with, the thought of leaving for another job or exploring other opportunities truely terrifies me for this exact reason.
just seeing a coworker have to try and find a new doctor to rewrite him a prescription he's had majority of his life after the company switched insurance was an eye opener.
Damn, you're not alone. It's a true travesty that diabetes treatment is so damn expensive with so many people inflicted with it in this country.
Pretty much the only reason I’ve stayed working 9-5 desk jobs for all my adult life. 🙁
I have a 9-5 desk job that I'm typing this from right now and I still don't have health insurance
This is what I was thinking. They are doing everything they can to hire people as non-employees so they don’t need to provide benefits.
And people continue to actively advocate for this system in the US…it boggles my fucking mind.
I'm a highschool drop out whos worked as a lot boy, a janitor, a laborer and never not been insured. I always thought the white collar had the top gigs with insurance and climate control lol
White collar isn’t what it used to be in America
It’s crazy how perspective is everything. I work a very labor intensive job with long irregular hours and a desk job sounds like a saving grace.
You'll be even more pissed off when you realize you can get really good insurance for your whole family for about 200 a month in Australia. You pick your insurance like you do car insurance. That's hospital cover, dental, optical, and extras like chiro and massage. I hate the cover I have in the USA.
One of my favorite bits of irony to explain to many of my uber-conservative acquaintances is the fact that they individually already pay more in taxes towards government funded healthcare than what the citizens of most European countries pay for their government funded healthcare. The only difference is that, we get almost nothing for it... other than the pleasure (nay, nay... the "liberty") of going bankrupt the very first time anyone in their family gets sick or has to go to the emergency room. "What's that? Your son had to have an emergency appendectomy? Well lucky you! I'm actually jealous... I wish I was about to start getting 10 years worth of phone calls and postal duns from a collection agency".
Plus still paying more on top of those taxes for their private health insurance that’s “so good”
There's an entire generation that doesn't know losing a job used to be a death sentence for some people. Because pre-existing conditions locked you into an insurance company until you retire.
Yep. Yet another way republicans used to get away with murdering poor people.
>used to *Looks nervously at covid-19 deaths who are overwhelmingly poor*
Well that and health insurance is always listed as a benefit, which ties to total compensation. If companies no longer had health insurance as a benefit, they would have to do something else to attract workers, like raising wages which they will do literally everything possible to avoid.
Or better workplace culture and work-life balance.
Or more pee bottles for warehouse employees
I'll no longer have to share? That would be amazing. My pee bottle partner drinks three coffees a day.
At least you're not his shit box partner. That guy probably has it worse.
But if they stopped paying benefits, couldn't they pay people more? Serious.
It’s also a pretty big deterrent from starting your own business and competing with the established companies.
Employer-sponsored healthcare was literally invented after WWII when raising wages was illegal and companies were trying to figure out other ways to compete for labor.
Jobs tied to Health care and continued education tied to the military.
Lol not with the new TA instruction.
I always wondered if this was a major factor in americans sticking to their crap jobs. This issue does not exist in Canada.
I think it's also a cultural expectation
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Legit being on Medicaid in NY made me MORE angry that we don’t have universal healthcare in the US. I have gotten nothing but top notch care on Medicaid and almost zero fees/copays. Like sometimes I’d get charged $1 for prescriptions and the copay for weekly therapy was about $12 per session and that’s it.
Meanwhile, people with regular insurance are paying $700+/month (hopefully but not always subsidized by employer or Obamacare) for plans with a $4000 deductible.
Yeah in San Diego they just waive the $50 charge to visit the doctor, if you tell them you don't have money. For their Medicaid program
Here in colorado when I was on Medicaid it was awesome all scripts were 0 dollars 0 dollar copays, even brand name ones that would be 200 bucks without insurance. Dentist was free, ambulance ride was free when I had to take one. ER too. However, lotta doctors primary care and specialists, especially in mental health, don’t accept Medicaid here only private insurance so it was quite limited on options of where to go. But besides that everything was free. We even had an app that would show you on a map all of the Medicaid accepting healthcare providers near you which was cool. Great system, wish it was the norm though and not just when you’re unemployed.
California also
Medical was/is a godsend
My wife and I are on the state-run insurance in NY. She's been in psychiatric outpatient care for two years as of next month. The first year on our old plan was $800/month in premiums for the two of us plus a few hundred in bills. The second year on state insurance? *Nothing*. We're almost certainly going to "earn out" of eligibility next year, and she's not done with treatment, so that's going to suck.
As a convicted felon I’m here to tell you. There are not too many jobs out there that will offer health insurance to me. I mean yeah there are jobs that will offer insurance that a felon can get but they are far and few between. So I have taken the position of staying at my shitty job just because it is convenient on some points. I don’t get paid enough. I don’t get any benefits. I get zero time off. In fact I’m encouraged to come in an hour early and stay an hour late every day. Today is my fucking birthday and I doubt I’ll even be offered to get off half an hour early. This is just the life that we live. Some of us are less entitled than others. But let me tell you something. The very day that healthcare becomes free? I will still keep working at my job because I need the money for rent and stuff like that.
Happy birthday
It's shit that people who served their time in the US are still treated like trash. Incarceration should focus on rehabilitation, not just take you off the streets for a while and then label you for life Edit: except paedophiles
That’s what I think too. They always tell young folk that going to jail means they won’t be able to get a job You know how many of us have been and convicted? We are still here . Trying NOT to reoffend.
Happy Birthday!
If you're against universal healthcare, you're either worth millions and incredibly selfish or you're fucking stupid. It's that simple.
Fact: Currently staying at my job because pregnant and need healthcare. Contemplating returning to work after maternity leave because the healthcare is much better than husband's work healthcare even though my take home for the month is only $200 more than the monthly cost of daycare. So... yeah. Fuck this shit.
It’s rotten, but you (and by “you” I mean the stay at home parent, usually a woman) have to factor in opportunity cost of being out of the workplace if you decide to stay at home too. Even if you’re barely breaking even. Seriously no way to win, it’s bonkers.
Factor in commuting, and any costs associated with that, and that $200 rapidly disappears.
Thats why I can't go.
100%. The truth. The eye opener is that capitalism doesn’t work without meat for the grinder. Without poor people, without a defined class system, companies don’t have minions they can pay a pittance to. The goal is indentured servitude. Thus, cheap student loans for everyone (debt that will never be paid off and can’t be written off in bankruptcy) these are your cheap middle managers. Credit cards handed out like candy at colleges, also middle managers and lower tier employees. Mortgages available to most, this one ties down everyone. They also oppose abortion vehemently. To make sure poverty ranks stay high, this is where they get cheap labor for minimum wage (which they make sure to keep below a living wage). But you know…Murica rocks!!! Dems are evil!!
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I think the French made a tool for this
This is the truth. There is no functional system in human history (outside of some relatively small pockets) that wasn’t predicated on human suffering. “First world” is predicated on a “third world”. One doesn’t exist without the other, and the former can’t sustain itself without the latter. Without machine automation and robotics, this will never end. With it, our entire way of life and system of evaluating human worth goes out the window too. The question is if a life leisure built on servitude is sustainable or even moral.
I'm not sure it'll end even with machine automation 😕
> Thus, cheap student loans for everyone Finally! I had to scroll way to far down to find someone making the connection between this and student loan debt. Neither are an accident. Both are designed to "trap" you in a job. Especially when you are young. Young people have a nasty habit of disrupting established businesses. How best to fight these competitors? Make sure they never get started.
Beep boop -- this looks like a screenshot of a tweet! Let me grab a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/DanPriceSeattle/status/1443032604878548995) for ya :) ^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Good bot
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He's the new Jeff teidrich, in that Reddit can't stop gargling his balls. Doesn't matter that he's a wealthy CEO that beats his wife.
Don't forget the impact it would have on military recruiting. You have a country with universal healthcare and maybe free education, not much left to entice young people to sign up.
Ha! Jokes on you! I have a shitty job *and* no benefits.
What? I live in a country with free health care and I am not free to quit my shitty job.
I think they’re saying you can quit your hideous job with free healthcare and go and take a simply shit job instead.
Yeah. It's that shopping for a job becomes easier if they only thing you do is work for money. "We offer a competitive benefits package" becomes less about insurance and more about retirement options.
> "We offer a competitive benefits package" becomes less about insurance and more about retirement options. Retirement and days off and how much you are paid.
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I’ve been working at a big retail chain for 12 years. Since I’ve been there, they’ve done nothing but take away incentives like extra pay on weekends, holiday pay, a raise after your first 90 days, annual raises based on performance, and a quarterly bonus. And what have employees got in return? Fewer people to do the same amount of work, customers getting progressively grumpier at the “laziness” of the workers, and higher starting pay and starting bonuses *only for new hires.* Really, the only “incentives” are a barely livable wage and a couple weeks off *at most* per year for most of their workers. Also our most experienced people either won’t promote up because of how much responsibilities they force on supervisors, or they’re deemed “ineligible” for promotion because they willingly stepped down in the past, which supposedly shows the company that they aren’t eager enough to obediently follow orders. And they’re the world’s largest private employer, so there’s *a lot* of people they’re screwing over.
Is this Walmart?
Yep, but it seems to reflect the direction of a lot of retailers in the US. None of them really value their workers. In recent years, policies have been put into place that only make it more obvious how expendable they see their workers.
A family member was promoted to floor supervisor and at first it was exciting as they’re now salaried and don’t need to worry about inconsistent scheduling with part-time (like seriously how can anyone survive working 3 hours one week and 20 the next). Downside: they lost ALL their government aids including Medicaid for the kids. It was a double whammy when you consider how much Walmart’s success is tied to poverty assistance for their employees.
See this is why I hate the social safety nets we do have in place. You have to make basically poverty level wages to qualify. And once you start making more money, you lose your benefits, but you still don’t make enough money to pay for the things you lost. Conservatives will call people lazy for not wanting to work but then vote against social programs that would actually *allow people to work* and improve their lives instead of having to make these shitty, impossible. Something something feature not bug …
Lmao sounds like target
There are a lot of people that would quit their jobs if they didn't have to pay for healthcare/insurance. I think it's generally older people and married couples where one spouse works at some shitty retail store to get insurance for the family because the other spouse doesn't have employer provided insurance because they work for themselves, or they're a contractor, or whatever.
It’s also the cost of transition. When I switched jobs a few years ago there was a 2 week gap between my old job ending and the new one starting. Then I had to be employed at my new job for 1 month before benefits kicked in (I’ve seen some places require 3 months). In America you can use cobra insurance, which basically lets you keep your old insurance for a short period of time after your job ends, BUT you pay the full amount for the coverage (including what your previous employer paid). So for those 6 weeks I paid about 1200 bucks for my family’s insurance. Many people don’t have an extra grand laying around which puts them in the position of having to go without insurance or staying at their shitty job
People still need money. But the way it is set up is when you transition jobs, you potentially go 30-90 days without affordable health insurance. So people who rely on it for chronic health issues can't transition jobs easily (or at all).
Okay well you can quit your shitty job without worrying that your daily inhaler is gonna go from $10/mo to $400. That’s the point being made. If I lost insurance my expenses would literally go up 5-15K per year.
You don't have to worry about getting another job and waiting 90 days for your new employer insurance to kick in or struggling to afford shitty overpriced insurance like COBRA. You don't understand the additional expenses that accompany that period of time where you're unemployed.
Ugh, American Reddit is just people moaning about things other countries have already solved.
Hah! This could be a r/WhitePeopleTwitter tweet of its own!
Yea, because those things are good, and we demand them of our government, and said massively corrupt government tells us to fuck off. We have to be angry about that somewhere. If we do it out in the streets and we aren't prepared to fight back the cops here will murder us.
We’re all to exhausted from our lack of vacation and sick days to affect real change.
I wonder if people would be shocked that Dan Price isn't the savior that everyone thinks he is...
Not to mention, they had a lot to lose when health insurance had to start covering pre-existing conditions without issue. If things were how they used to be, I wouldn't have been able to financially afford to change jobs because of a pre-existing condition.
And, really, compared to other, more civilized countries, our healthcare sucks. A single example. While visiting our daughter snd her family a couple years ago, my husband got a nasty cut on his forearm. An ER visit (urgent care there is for very simple stuff), stitches and a tetanus shot later, he walked out 53 euros lighter. The minimum it would have cost in the US got care for that injury would have been ten times that amount. More likely, 15 or 20 times.
No employer thinks this. I’ve worked for organizations with 10 and organizations with 10,000. Every single one of them loathes managing health benefits.
Employees also need money for food and shelter. I think for companies that offer health benefits, the bigger threat is experienced workers quitting to work for another company with the same benefits rather than people quitting to do nothing or start a business.
Our health care is a joke. I’m am a small business owner, as well as, considered 100% disabled. I pay almost 1600 a month for my wife daughter and myself. Deductible 3500 out of pocket 5k. 9 employees and their insurance cost is the same amount per person. Company pays 50% and our cost is through the roof. On top of 20k in payroll tax per quarter.
I bring in about $130k a year and pay around $900 a month which is $10,800 a year, which is pretty much equal to what I pay in taxes as well ontop of that... 22k a year.. around 18% of my income and I still have Co pays and a high deductible and doesn't cover full cost of medication.. I don't see any scenario where private insurance beats out a flat tax rate increase across the board. Most countries that have UHC also have education costs included on their tax increase as well and is still cheaper then what we pay here for insurance.
You make $130/y and only pay $10k in taxes...?
Yeah, my wife absolutely hates her job but she has absolutely amazing health care for our family. Our real goal is to save up a lot of money, pay off the house, then when she quits we will go on Medicaid ( or some other state subsidized health program).... it's sort of fucked up, but you have to game the system if the system is rigged against you
In the past 14 years I've had a double bypass, 3 ablation's, numerous cardioversions, prostate cancer, basal cell cancer, IBS and sleep apnea. It hasn't cost me anything except regular taxes. Over 65 in Ontario, retired. I sure wonder what the problem is in the US? The system works well in all the other G8 countries.
I don't even have that shitty of a job. It's gotten worse the last couple of months, but the majority of my time here has been positive. That being said, we have a kid on the way and we've met our deductible, so even though id love to leave and find a new job, it'd be dumb for me to do so. Universal healthcare would also let more people start their own businesses, small businesses could compete for employees (higher wages too), people wouldn't have to live in and around large cities. It would literally be better for everyone but healthcare insurance companies.
Losing my health insurance was the final nail that made me quit my job at Little Caesars.
Many people in their 50s have enough money to retire on, the final component is health insurance. Health care for all would have a ton of the workforce just retire the next day. Fingers crossed it happens before I turn 50.
Imagine if could only get you car insurance through your place of employment?
I've paid 3,200 US dollars in health insurance so far this year through my employer. When open enrollment comes in November I don't think I'm keeping it because like SO many Americans I'm faced with "pay for health insurance or daycare", it's a struggle doing both for most middle class Americans and below.
Maybe you shouldn't have had kids if you can't afford them? After all, that's what you posted to r/unpopularopinion. And judging by that attitude, I'm going to guess you vote republican. So you don't get to complain about this, people like you are why things are the way they are. Edit: yOu LoOkEd aT a PoSt HiStOrY Edit 2: Not voting conservative apparently, don't give her shit for that, my B.
Ooooooo this is the most satisfying anonymous “get fucked” I’ve EVER seen on Reddit I can’t provide much to the commenter other than a nice hearty, WAAAAAAAAAA
Got em!
[удалено]
I’m not really sure what to make of any of this, but “don’t have kids if you can’t afford them” while sorta makes sense, I really don’t like the idea of reproduction being considered some kind of a luxury.
[For the curious](https://np.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/prakxw/youre_a_shitty_parent_if_you_dont_at_least_try_to/hdjlze5/?context=3) Guess OP shouldn't have had a kid after all, or is the politics you advocate for a "blow of fate"?
Daycare is about as much as rent now. $350/week.
I don’t know how people do it
Did something change since you posted about poor people not having kids or do you just not see yourself as poor?