[synaesthesisx]

Man, it sure would be great if we could decouple health insurance from employment like other reasonable countries. It would be a shame to literally have your existence threatened by absurd factors well outside of your control (like your employer unable to meet payroll due to a global pandemic).

[unlinked_dll]

More small/medium sized businesses should be on board with this too. No one likes dealing with insurance companies/plans.

[acwan93]

With gigwork and independent contracting becoming a significant part of our economy, I can’t agree more. It seems archaic to bundle health insurance to my workplace. I can purchase auto, home, life, and whatever other insurance on my own, why not health?

[dylan604]

You can buy health insurance on your own. It's just not going to be subsidized by your employer. If you thought your health care premiums through work were high, just wait until you see how much more it goes up with out the employer contribution. Easily double would be a first guess.

[MereInterest]

It is also higher due to having a poorer negotiating platform. When an employer threatens to have hundreds to thousands of workers switch coverage, it can decrease the price. When an individual threatens to switch, the result is a shrug. Scaling this up is a good reason to support a single-payer system.

[gruez]

>It seems archaic to bundle health insurance to my workplace. I can purchase auto, home, life, and whatever other insurance on my own, why not health?

Because if you get it through your work, you don't have to pay tax on it. Also, getting it through work also decreases the risk of adverse section on the part of the insurer, making it cheaper.

[Ididntdothis]

“Because if you get it through your work, you don't have to pay tax on it.”

That’s not a natural law but something that should be changed immediately. There is no justification for this.

[MuffinFlavored]

> it sure would be great if we could decouple health insurance from employment like other reasonable countries.

How does this work in Denmark? I read they were the gold standard for how a nation should do health care, but I also read they don't do insurance solely as a public option through the government.

[Ididntdothis]

If it’s like Germany they have highly regulated insurance companies. There are public and private insurers. Private insurance is only available for higher incomes. The main thing in Germany is that your premium is based on a percentage of your salary so the less you make the less you pay. There is also a cutoff from a certain salary on so the premiums don’t keep going up when you make above that cutoff amount. If you are unemployed the employment agency keeps paying. If you are on welfare then that department will pay. So you can never fall out of insurance.

Another big aspect is that the amount doctors and hospitals can charge and what insurance reimburses is regulated. So you don’t have the situation where hospitals charge whatever they feel like and the insurance reimburses whatever they feel like and the patient sits in the middle and has to figure it out somehow or potentially go bankrupt.

There is much more detail but I hope I got the basics right. You hear a lot of bad stories too but overall the system is way more predictable and just than the US system. I have experienced both and I can see the US system only making sense for millionaires or healthy people. Otherwise it’s an insanely bureaucratic, expensive and merciless system where every hospital visit is a big gamble. And definitely don’t get any chronic disease or they will bleed yoU dry.

[kempbellt]

Then let's do it

[maximente]

unlikely as both parties are beholden to big corps which love the idea of existential crisis (getting fired => lose insurance => medical bankruptcy) preventing normal individuals from engaging in entrepreneurship/competition/healthy lifestyles

[xster]

#yang2020

[Ididntdothis]

Did Yang run on health care reform? Last time I read about him he was babbling about “choice” and “market” but seemed to have no real plan other than the magic of the free market. If the health care situation doesn’t change then all of UBI will be eaten up by health care soon.

[omegaworks]

> Did Yang run on health care reform?

Marginally. His plan was basically the same as Buttigieg's: Medicare for all who want it.

Of course, they never talked about how that would actually reduce your choices as employers opted to stop covering health insurance and you were stuck with the smaller Medicare provider pool.

One of the big structural advantages of the real Medicare for All plan is that it would eliminate "networks" all providers would be required to accept the M4A single-payer.

[xster]

Ya, he ran specifically to decouple healthcare from employment. It's thematic with the whole financial security to pursue entrepreneurship part of the message (which doesn't work if you have to take all that money and buy health insurance for your employees)

[Der_Einzige]

You gotta vote then. You need to get other people to also vote for candidates who would do it. You need to convince the other sides supporters to abandon their support for the other side.

It would really help if we had a politican who was somehow electable in the primary and didn't hold policies which are deal breakers for the other sides voters. For example, on gun rights or (god forbid) abortion

Unfortunately, if you try to be pro gun in the democratic party they will eviscerate you in the primary. Just look at Bernie sanders in 2016 vs Clinton on the Brady Bill. Until we can convince republicans that the dems won't take their guns away, it's basically impossible to convince a good portion of Trumps base to abandon their support. I don't advocate for pro-life dems but if you really want republican votes you may have to at least pretend to be pro-life.

None of these are easy, but it must be done or else it's more of the same crap.

[smartstakestime]

you can buy your own health insurance. This is like saying that because you dont get free lunch anymore that losing your job is "life threatening". Somebody has to pay for it. This liberal mindset of "make rich guy pay" is at its core lazy and selfish.

I think that the health industry itself is a scam, and over priced by bureaucracy but that doesnt mean that another person should take your burden. Your health is your responsibility not your employers.

Employers shouldn't be playing health insurance because that shouldn't be necessary. Minimum wage should cover basic care. Either minimum wage is too low or basic care is too high. We kinda take care of this through taxes but its a bandaid on a corrupt overpriced monopoly industry.

[JoeAltmaier]

In this climate you can't buy your own - its 3X the cost and not subsidized by your employer makes it worse.

But I agree the connection between health insurance and employment is artificial. I'd rather see some basic universal health, plus a market for better plans.

[jcranmer]

If you get health insurance via your employer, the value of that health insurance is not considered income, and is tax-free. If you pay for it yourself, you get no tax benefits for doing so.

That kind of skews incentives a fair amount.

[gregkerzhner]

This is not true (at least if you are a contractor or are self employed). You deduct your health insurance premiums (and all sorts of other expenses like home office) as business expenses. After that’s done you pay tax on the rest. source - I’ve been contracting for 6 years and buying my own insurance.