idk man I just need to vent i guess
my employer “provides” health insurance in exchange for my time and labor, and for that great privilege they take $600 out of my paycheck every month (covers me, my wife, and our 1yo son)
that’s half our monthly mortgage payment; it’s 2/3 our monthly grocery bill
why?
Universal healthcare would probably not cost you that much with taxes. But instead a private company gets to reap all the benefits of your money.
And then deny your access to lifesaving health care, don’t forget that part.
Private Company gets all your money and then gets to say “no, you really don’t need that operation, rub some dirt on it and take a salt pill” and then proceed to Scrooge McDuck into a pile of money.
The concept that you have coverage for a thing and it gets denied is baffling to me. How are Americans not trading in the streets over the systems your parents built?
Because the system of oppression is so perfect here that nobody dares step out of line. The average American is 1 month away from being homeless. And you can be fired from your job at any time for any reason. Take time off work to protest and an asshole cop decides to arrest you? You get fired from your job, then you get a criminal record making it almost impossible to find a new job. With zero safety net that’s it, you’re on the street for the rest of your life.
You could probably do better buying insurance off the ACA marketplace, even without premium assistance if your job didn’t offer insurance.
I pay the same and it covers next to nothing. I’m done paying my medical bills. If they want money I’m insured figure it out with them and don’t bother me. I have insurance so my child can. If I could I’d have just them covered. It’s significantly cheaper for me not to have it
Mine is about the same for family coverage, and the shocking thing is that it’s pretty good relative to the market – my previous employer was about ~100/mo cheaper for an equivalent HDHP plan, but I’ve seen much, much worse.
Honestly, though, even more than the cost (having run the numbers, the tax I’d pay in a European country to cover similar services is about the same, all things considered) is the sheer level of friction that insurers inject into the healthcare system. You have to get a referral to a specialist even if you know you need to see one. You have to get insurance authorization for specialty treatments. You have to think about deductibles and out-of-pocket-maximums, and Lord help you if you start having complex medical problems around the end of the year and the maximums reset in the middle of your treatment!
We pay out of pocket for a direct primary care pediatrician for our kid (on top of his insurance, to cover any meds or emergencies) and the fact that there’s no insurance to deal with means that it’s vastly easier to get a hold of her to get a medical opinion whenever there’s a bad bump or a strange rash that needs a professional opinion. It’s shocking to see how things could be if insurance companies and PBMs and for-profit hospital networks hadn’t inserted themselves in between patients and doctors, with a sole eye towards making sure they pay out at little as humanly possible while maybe keeping patients alive in the process.
America is a corrupt capitalist hellscape. It’s why I don’t have kids, only go to the doctor when shit happens and never pay the bill.
What a shitty, selfish way to treat the medical people who care for you when you’re sick.
Why don’t you ask them if they mind you stiffing them after they take care of you?
What a shitty way to treat people.
