idk man I just need to vent i guess
my employer “provides” health insurance in exchange for my time and labor, and for that great privilege they take $600 out of my paycheck every month (covers me, my wife, and our 1yo son)
that’s half our monthly mortgage payment; it’s 2/3 our monthly grocery bill
why?
Until you realize that in your praised Europe with the universal healthcare this is presicely how it works.
If you want cash instead of benefits go become a contractor.
I can’t possibly see where on an antiwork sub I could even begin to explain why employment laws and health insurances exist instead of everyone just getting plain cash for their labor. If you don’t know that, you’re not qualified to be antiwork.
Is this a swing at Europe? Because universal healthcare takes €50-60 per month in taxes, around €15-25 per month that you must pay to your personal healthcare and there’s a €10 per month “hospitalia” that pays for hospital services like rooms. If you get into an operation which would cost $50 000 in the US, in Europe that would cost €2500 here plus €500 for a room, you get around €2000 back from your personal healthcare that’s subsidized by the universal healthcare, and you get €400+ back for the room.
I really don’t get your take, I’m antiwork when it’s abouts profits but I love paying these taxes.
You’re kidding me, right? I lived in a few of those “best healthcare in the world” countries, and I was paying 400-600€ per month. Forcefully. By law.
The healthcare costs afterwards are much lower than in the US exactly because this system exists. But neither OP nor you have even the basics right on how and why those markets are shaped to be this way.
Instead you live in a fairytale world where in the US an evil employer deducted 600$ from your paycheck to pay for your health insurance, while in some universal healthcare countries it’s just “free”.
So, funnily enough, there’s as usual here an army of lemmings upvoting your BS and downvoting me. While the healthcare in Europe is affordable specifically because the government forcefully takes about 600$ out of your paycheck and gives to the insurance. And neither you nor the employer have any chance to say no to that.
I’m from a place in Europe. Had complicated surgery recently. I technically made money from it. And once the scar and minor disability is calculated, I’ll probably make even more. To put things in perspective, I mean.
Disability and “long term health care” often have their own type of government spending. It might look like you’re making money but it’s the same as getting unemployment benefits. Although in this case they are justified by your health instead. These costs are considered to be paid by past and future taxes.
If it’s anything else you’re pretty lucky, but it can quickly turn into minor fraud. If you are working and are getting a lot of money, be sure that they know you are getting this money.
It’s not a lot of money and certainly not worth it. I’m just making a point that I financially go positive rather than negative. The money comes from a private insurer that makes money every year. I’m pretty sure they are on top of things. This is not some advanced insurance scam; it’s the realisation that an accident is something to be compensated for and not punished for. No-one wants to be in an accident (edge cases blah blah).
I see. I wasn’t claiming it was a scam or anything.
Damn it’s really that cheap?
It’s decent and affordable but not cheap. The US is just extremely expensive. I read that hospitals in the US even bill pills that are given to you, separately, at 50 times the actual price or something.
I really wish healthcare would be affordable and possible for everybody because not only does it improve lives medically, but also psychologically as you know they are there to help you.
They pay $600 a month for insurance and STILL pays doctor bills. I also pay 600 a month and my yearly max out of pocket is $2500 per family member. In the EU the pay nothing other than taxes(maybe some small fees but not much at all) And from searching a few websites the max you will pay in Germany is 7.3 percent of your income capped at €62100 for a max monthly insurance cost of €377.77($420.70 USD)
P.s. you pulled 7% number out of your ass. It’s exactly as I explained the “visible” part of the deductible. The actual number is precisely double, again as explained.
So, in total you might have a salary of 50k and you’ll see 300 being deducted every month. Even though in fact the employer will have to also pay 300 to the insurance, making your actual gross salary 53.5k, and the actual deductible to be 600€.
I wanna see Lemmy’s face when they’ll realize this is not a singular incident and with all the various social security systems and taxes combined they’ll end up with receiving on their bank account some 40-45% of what left their employer bank account to keep them employed.
But oh boy “600$ got deducted, corporate fascism, our USA is broken, please go look at the universal healthcare countries it’s soo much better, I promise”.
It actually is if you’re poor. And if you’re somewhere, where your deductible is 600$, you would’ve been much better off with an American system. Might not be ideal from a societal point of view, but you as an individual who has the means to use a 600$/m private insurance will absolutely be much better off.
And, so, believe it or not, Americans on those private corporate plans get a much, much better healthcare than folks in the same salary range enjoying the universal healthcare.
And if you don’t understand how, why, and what’s at play behind regulated and deregulated health insurance markets, then you do not qualify to be anti-work.
So, you’re saying anyone in Germany with an above average salary is forced to pay 400$ out of their salary for their healthcare insurance? Isn’t this exactly what OP complains about, or can you not logic at all?
Did I or OP say anything about out-of-pocket? Do you actually know anything about the insurance market and do you realize that your co-pays are only that low because this forced system exists?
looks like it’s not only our US friends who knows jack shit about how universal healthcare works
When I do my annual determination of the best plan, I always look at my total cost if I maxed out copays and deductible. Even as an old fart, HSA looks incredibly cheap because the premiums are so low. How ever, in many circumstances I don’t reach my out of pocket limits.
Why don’t you try? I’m sure you’d do a bang-up job explaining.
It’s kinda like this: you walk dogs for a living, you vote left hoping that they’ll come to power and print a lot of money and just pay for everything you need, one day your dream comes true and you wake up in Venezuela.
And as to why all sane countries have a forced universal healthcare insurance that will deduct from your paycheck exactly as OP described, and will do as an obligation by law, you can consider me copy-pasting this thing as an explanation:
https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.31.4.23