30 Days of US Healthcare: Job Benefits

Day 14

30 Days of US Healthcare

[ooggggg]

The fun part is how your employer can trap you in your current job because if you quit you lose not only your salary but also your “benefits”

[JackDespero]

YES. YES.
OH MY GOODNESS.
I have tried to explain this so many times to my US coworkers, because one day I said something along the lines of "Oh boy, we have a good insurance but we sure pay for it, huh" and they were like "what do you mean, it is only 50 a month!". I pointed out that it is actually 650 dollars a month: The company pays directly 600 out of our salary, without calling it a salary, and then it gives us 50 dollars which are then taken.
But make no mistake, those were our 650 dollars, and they just used some pre-school magic trick level accounting to trick people into believing otherwise. And the worst thing is that people with phds actually believe that, because they never actually questioned the system.

[rftulie]

From a family doc (glasses permanently askew😂), respect to a guy in a high-end specialty who could just have taken the attitude that “I’ve got mine, the system’s fine” but instead chose to do a pointed series on why it’s not working!

[MerryKeli]

This series is really making me appreciate my non-US healthcare a lot more.

[hiltonian_]

Health insurance became a work connected thing during WW2, when there were restrictions on pay increases. Companies could get around the restrictions and attract and retain employees by offering health insurance instead of increased salary. That practice became pointless after the restrictions went away, but while Europeans implemented national health care systems we got stuck with employment linked insurance. (Sad trombone)

We almost got statewide health insurance in Vermont a few years ago but our slimy governor did a bait and switch and buried it.

[siddharthvk]

I love how Dr. G has been educating the audience this month. We are halfway through the month, and its eye-opening how shady the entire system has been. It's even getting worse as days go by, because people are slowly beginning to understand the scam and are somehow already tired and have given up.
Everyone, please don't give up. We are in this situation because of the extreme apathy & wilful ignorance that the individual who run these companies have. We have to show them that we are different!

[annelynn]

My dad used to write the editorial column for a state-based dental journal, and he told me once, many moons ago, that if he turned up dead we might want to look into the insurance industry as a culprit. He wrote often and loudly about them, and not in a positive light. He was correct.

[sopyleecrypt]

I’ve had debates with Americans along the lines of “Ah yes, but universal healthcare increases tax. I like not having to pay a lot of tax.” Dude, you’re already paying it. It’s just that instead of paying via your employer to central government, you pay it via your employer to private insurance companies instead.

[xxgn]

In theory, the benefit of health insurance from work is that your insurance is not specific to you, so you're somewhat protected from insurance being denied due to your health status. In practice, employee health insurance is mostly only available to people who are healthy enough to work, with a partial (paid) exception for COBRA.

[PhrontDoor]

Been trying to explain this for decades.

[CompletelyNormal]

The worst part is that changing jobs often means changing insurance. And because of how networks work, changing insurance often means having to change doctors. That means that if you've found the one doctor that can treat your obscure genetic condition, or you've finally managed to find a doctor who is willing to take your health concerns seriously despite your mental health problems, you have to start the search all over again if you have to change jobs for whatever reason.

[loftyguy]

Medicaid while I was a poor medical student with 3 kids was WAY better than the private health insurance"benefit" I get now as a poor resident with 3 kids.

[mrnuke]

Of course there’s also the fact that many employers require you to work a certain number of hours to qualify for benefits, and since they control your schedule, they can cut you off whenever they want. Plus, new employees usually have to work up to a year before they can even sign up for insurance, meaning that if you require healthcare, you can’t quit or even drop down to part time.

[thomasdalton]

This is a very important point. I work in pensions and have to explain the same thing to people sometimes. Your employer making a larger contribution to your pension isn't better since it just means you are receiving less in salary. Politicians are always pushing for employers to contribute to pensions even for very low earners without realising that will just mean those people earn even less, which they can't afford.

[AliciaMcIntire]

And remember, your employer is the customer, not you. They can change your insurance at any time. My brother's employer used to have great insurance, but then they switched to a cheap plan that covered nothing. They had a company wide meeting about the change. One guy said that his wife was undergoing treatment for an aggressive cancer, and the CEO told him too bad, so sad. The husband punched the CEO in the face in the elevator after the meeting. Now the CEO walks everywhere with body guards.

[unicornsuperfan]

That's so real. I work contract work and if I opt into insurance they decrease my pay rate.

[OcaRebecca]

And prior to the ACA, if you didn't get employer based health insurance, any sort of pre-existing health condition meant you had no chance of getting it elsewhere. And the list of things that could be a pre-existing conditions was quite frankly frightening.

[chanticleer]

And they DO NOT increase your pay if you don't use their health insurance! ❤❤❤ LOVE IT! SO 🤬 MUCH.

[petrie]

Employer health care benefits are how we got into this mess to begin with. It gave a huge advantage to the kind of large companies that can make such a deal with a business, putting a barrier to entry for competition. These sorts of employee benefits got started in WWII, when the government implemented an effective maximum wage and employers had to find other means to compete over employee compensation.

[pebazope]

I love learning new horrible things about my shitty insurance keep up the good work