[ceejayoz]

> I moved from Denmark to the US, and I pay around $400 in health insurance premiums (health, eye, and dental) for a whole family.

My health alone is $2,100/month for a family of four. I suspect your employer is paying a large portion of your premiums as a benefit.

This is quite common in the US, and a significant portion of the problem, as people think they're getting great insurance "cheap". They're not - it's just being paid in a way that's not visible. As a result, any discussion of "it'd be cheap to implement national healthcare, it'd only cost $X" is met with "but I pay peanuts for mine now!"

[Gibbon1]

I've noticed that a lot of employers don't tell workers how much they are paying for health insurance. Because for large companies the number gets rolled into a negociated contract.

In my case I do know. My employer pays $930 some a month. My rent used to be $860/month.

The other thing the happens is just because you have insurance doesn't mean that healthcare providers aren't trying to jack more money out of you. Any procedure/service will be up coded to increase your out of pocket share.

[lotsofpulp]

Employer’s share of premium is on your W-2 tax forms, box 12 code DD.

https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/form-w-2-reporting-o...

[cozzyd]

Yeah I only pay like 20% of the cost of the premium for my plan for my wife and I. Which means the actual premium is over $1k a month... yikes. At least the deductible is only a few hundred dollars...

[Bombthecat]

What the...? Almost a thousend a month? That's 12k a year, just paid by employers. Where is the money going?

[ceejayoz]

To the USA's $9.5k/year per-capital healthcare spending.

Did my taxes and my family of four was well past the $30k mark for insurance, copays, dental, and optical this year.

[b_t_s]

Ha, that's cheap. Last time I checked the medical system gets over 20 grand a year from me(some via my employer). Works out to like 4 to 7 grand a visit, and that's mostly routine checkups/vaccinations for my kid. There's a reason doctors and medical/insurance execs are so wealthy.

[fucking_tragedy]

Employers can also negotiate for group rates that someone buying insurance on the individual market won't have access to.

Not only do employers pay for a portion of employee healthcare costs, they also get better coverage for less.