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by dosethree 970 days ago
If I lose my job I lose health care. How does that make any sense? Preventative medicine is cheaper
3 comments

Healthcare has absolutely GOT to be divorced from employment. We need to make it illegal for companies to provide HC benefits.
From a policy standpoint this is an easy thing to say, however tens of millions of americans get a pretty sweet deal as a result of this. To change it you need to make losers out of them so you can make winners out of others. These games of winners and losers is what makes health policy making very very difficult and resistant to change.
Are you sure you can’t just buy insurance through the ACA?

Many people in the US seem to still think that they will be way more screwed if they leave their job than they actually would be.

> Are you sure you can’t just buy insurance through the ACA?

Have you tried? I did, when between jobs. Over $3000/month for a family of three.

Yes I've had various flavors of ACA insurance for the last 9 years. Family of 4. Most of the time you can get cost reductions via tax credits, unless your income is quite high. However you may live in a state which is hostile to the ACA. I suppose that does matter. In NY, OR, and VT it has been solid for us.
the average American cannot afford a sudden $500 expense. you think they can afford to pay for healthcare? plus the quality of coverage, while better than nothing, may still bankrupt them if they need something major
Note that if you are insured by your employer, you are still likely both paying a significant portion of the cost directly, and what your employer is paying is part of your compensation so that's money you would have in your pocket if your employer weren't insuring you.
Yes it's this belief that employed=free healthcare which holds back a lot of progress.
It's not necessarily. If you live long enough you die of things like Alzheimer's or diabetes, chronic lived disease, e.g which are incredibly expensive.
Yeah I actually looked up whether preventive is cheaper, and while it may be in some cases not in all. It does sound overall BETTER though because it will result in better health outcomes. but the aging population is obviously a massive drain on medical costs and theres not much we can do