My boyfriend and I pay 1000 rent, and he has the same insurance plan as me. So insurance is 25% of our rent. And that doesn't cover anything until we've each paid 2700. We're doing a startup, and it's a big part of our monthly expenses.
And actually, we moved out of SF to buckle down on our startup, because rent was too high. Also, people have to pay rent whether they have a startup or a regular job, and they get a lot of special discounts to their healthcare via the regular job that you don't get with individual plans.
> And that doesn't cover anything until we've each paid 2700.
And your car insurance has a deductible too. If it included maintenance, as you seem to want from health insurance, it would be far more expensive.
> We're doing a startup, and it's a big part of our monthly expenses.
Umm, your personal expenses are shelter (including energy), food, transportation, healthcare, and entertainment. Do you really think that any other than the latter can be small?
Look - I want to be subsidized too, but changing payers can't make things cheaper.
Before you say "govt health care" or "single player", I'll remind you that the US govt already spends 8% of US GDP on healthcare and only covers a fraction of the population. The UK, Canada, France, et al also spend 8% of their GDP and yet manage to cover the vast majority of their population, and their GDP/person is significantly less.
In other words, the US govt spends far more per person than other countries on healthcare.
If you're going to argue that the US govt can provide healthcare for less, I'm going to point out that it doesn't.
When you fix govt healthcare, then we'll talk. (And no, you don't need universal to fix things. Those other countries have private systems that co-exist so accounting isn't an excuse.)
Yes, I know that the "overhead" category for Medicare is a smaller fraction of the total than the "overhead" category for private, but much of what we'd call overhead isn't counted in that category wrt medicare. For example, fraud.
I'm really not sure why you're being so argumentative with me. I didn't mention anything political or about who pays. Just that the tax situation is different if you get health insurance via an employer vs an individual plan. I spend 10% of my income on health insurance. I'm okay with that, but I also have just about the cheapest possible health insurance that isn't major medical and is from a reputable company.
Your original argument was about it being an issue in starting a startup. If I had preexisting conditions, the plan I'm on now would not be available. It's also difficult to find plans that cover pregnancy. I'm healthy, so it's true that it's not much of a concern for me. But if the situation were different my insurance could easily be 30-50% of expenses. Or if I got pregnant, I could afford to cover the 10,000-20,000 cost of a normal pregnancy, but if anything went wrong it would cost hundreds of thousands. I'm not saying someone else should pay for my pregnancy, but women shouldn't have to roll the bankruptcy dice when they get pregnant. This is what risk pools are for.
The problem is also that it take lot of time to deal with. The plan we're on is an HMO. We've moved a little bit away, so now I'd have to drive 85 miles to see the doctor. I could change plans, but then I'd have to do a lot of research again.
I don't want health insurance to cover maintenance, people need to be aware of how much things cost and make economic decisions with respect to health care. Which is why I purchased the plan I did. But the plan is really difficult because price comparison shopping for health care is an unreasonable process. I got a blood test last year. I asked the doctor how much it would cost. He was very surprised by the question and said about 100. I got a bill for 500 for the test, plus all the doctor's fees.
I don't have dental insurance and I need a filling. The first quote I got was 363 dollars. Which according to some internet research is far too high. So now I have to spend the afternoon calling around dentists. Some of them won't even give quotes without a visit to look at the cavity. It's hard to price shop and the prices are inflated due to insurance.
> I'm really not sure why you're being so argumentative with me.
I'm arguing with the claim that healthcare is an especially big deal. In almost all cases, it's smaller than rent and comparable to transportation and food. It takes less time than transportation and food. (Seriously - compare the amount of time you spend on each.)
As far as pre-existing conditions go, they're only an obstacle for folks who go bare for a while. In other words, the reality doesn't match the fears, again.
> Just that the tax situation is different if you get health insurance via an employer vs an individual plan.
That is a problem (albeit one that isn't as bad as it was - insurance is now deductible in more cases) but if you don't have an income, deductibility isn't worth much.
And your rent is?
My point is that for the vast majority of people, healthcare isn't a huge obstacle. It's comparable to transportation and food, and behind shelter.
I don't see folks complaining that they can't do a startup because rent is too high.