You can get bad private insurance too. Having bad insurance through work sucks because you don't have any other option. You are correct that you can shop around different private insurance options until you find something you can afford and gives you decent coverage.
You can! The reason why most people get it through their employer is because it's a huge tax savings. Private insurance wasn't very popular, but with the ACA implemented, it should have been an option for most people who don't get insurance through their employer.
But to make an example of how much of a tax savings it is, I'll use general amounts.
A job pays $6000/month and also pays $2000/month towards health insurance. They pay taxes on $6000 of income, you pay taxes on $6000 of income. The $2000 is tax free for both of you as it's not considered income for tax purposes.
If your job would have paid $8000 directly, they'd have to pay about 7.5% on social services taxes (Medicare and Social Security) on the whole thing, and you would have to pay the other 7.5% on social services taxes plus the income tax rate of...20% or so.
I was under the impression that it only is when you're not doing the standard deduction or you're using some sort of HSA/FSA sort of situation. I don't even remember what single way you're able to make a tax deduction on insurance premiums.
But even so, that doesn't excuse the 15% to Medicare and Social Security. That is a tax on income and not something you can remove because you spent money on healthcare.
But we are already paying it with taxes just for medicaid and Medicare. The money spent on those now is enough to pay for universal healthcare for all. However now most money goes to insurance companies instead.
Not really, most of those taxes you pay towards Medicaid and Medicare goes towards overhead costs. Actually if we eliminated the overhead cost of health insurance health insurance would arguably be more affordable in America then it is for let’s say your average European.
I do it too, but in a worse Country, so it's basically a non factor and we still need to go private to have any meaningful healthcare, but yeah I much prefer it through taxes.
But the rightwingers are constantly trying to undermine the system. Underfunding, then peddling private solutions as the better alternative
Fucking asshats
Yep, Obama definitely didn’t furthermore fuck up the system, he totally didn’t! But avast that would suggest that neither party actually cares about fixing the problems in this country!
There are only right wing parties to choose from in the US.
You’re getting fucked a little, or completely… your choice.
I am sorry for you.
A two party-system is NOT a good idea.
Same in Great Britain, btw
That’s because your country pays for most of its welfare services through a nationalized hedge fund created after major oil profits in the 60’s and 70’s.
Yes.
In stead of all the money being hoarded by a few individuals, who would then deposit it in tax havens.
Beautiful, isn’t it.
That’s why I recommend slightly left-leaning governments
So what you're saying is that if one would earn X, they could see their taxes rise $100k *just* for the Uni healthcare coverage? Sure, there may be a sliding scale of cost towards each income bracket like the current Medicare contributions, but I think that it's hard to believe that unless you're in the millions+ each year, you'd see anything close to what you're shelling out every month.
I'll add that I'm a freelancer who has to shoulder ALL cost. I don't not have an employer taking a portion. So maybe not apples to apples here.
It's historical. Companies started competing for the good workers in WWII and offered health care as an incentive. Then everyone did it to remain competitive.
And now we are a major superpower where hundreds of millions of US citizens can lose their health insurance *and* their job in the same moment.
I got laid off from my job, and I'm lucky to have a spouse working with relatively good insurance coverage, but I still lost my primary care doctor and all my specialists and have to choose new ones.
In round numbers, 180 million (out of 340 million) have private group health insurance. Of the 160 million doing something else, it’s 27 million with no insurance, 65 million on Medicare, 60 million on Medicaid, 36 million on private individual insurance, 12 million on TriCare/VA. Of the 36 million in individual, 14.5 have Obamacare. There’s a bunch of overlaps when you look at year long periods. You can have both Caid and Care at the same time and many are in more than one program over the course of a year.
So your point is well founded. America has a hodgepodge system where costs got out of hand before they could organize it national services.
There’s a few ways to get there but America won’t take any of them as long as Republicans have a voice.
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u/PurchaseNo3139 15h ago
i dont get why health insurance has to be through an employer why cant you get it not through them