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Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

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Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#41

Post by cperciva »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #29

A little off topic but I decided to look this up. What would taxes be if we compared the US to Canada? Using the following two tools: https://simpletax.ca/calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator For 50k a year in British Colombia for Canada and California for the US I get the following: BC: $8,372 CA: $11,112 At 100k with 18k contributed to 401k/RRSP the numbers are 17.5K and 25.8k for BC an…

That particular simpletax calculator is weirdly broken -- it seems to ignore payroll taxes. (I say weirdly, because simpletax usually doesn't bungle things like that.) Once you include CPP (Canada's version of Social Security) and Employment Insurance (benefits for unemployed people, but not remotely resembling insurance despite the name), someone earning $50k in BC pays just over $10k... plus another $900/month (more if you're not single) of mandatory tax-but-not-called-a-tax government medical premiums.

So for your hypothetical $50k/year worker, the tax burdens are pretty similar; BC+Canada sales taxes come to 12% which I believe is a bit higher than California's sales taxes, but of course the BC resident has government medical coverage.

Two important caveats however:

1. Depending on your income, BC is the lowest-tax or very close to the lowest-tax jurisdiction in Canada. Someone earning $50k in Quebec would pay around $13k of income taxes instead of $10k.

2. Salaries in Canada are vastly lower than San Francisco / Silicon Valley salaries.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#42

Post by jdminhbg »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #29

A little off topic but I decided to look this up. What would taxes be if we compared the US to Canada? Using the following two tools: https://simpletax.ca/calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator For 50k a year in British Colombia for Canada and California for the US I get the following: BC: $8,372 CA: $11,112 At 100k with 18k contributed to 401k/RRSP the numbers are 17.5K and 25.8k for BC an…

You compared 50k nominal CAD and USD, rather than the same after exchange rate. Googling "50000 usd in cad" gives me $66,280 CAD; plugging that into your first link gives me an after-tax income of $53,317 CAD, which is $40,225 USD, a lot closer to the $38,888 Californian after-tax income.

More importantly, besides VAT (actually called GST in Canada) there's all the employer-side taxes that aren't advertised in a job posting. Try using the self-employment box in your Canadian calculator; for $66,820 CAD in self-employed income in BC, you end up with $48,229 CAD after tax, or only $36,378 USD on $50,000 USD.

That's not really fair or useful either, because the same situation will have all kinds of tax implications in CA as well. My point is more than simply looking at "this is what income tax is in jurisdiction A vs jurisdiction B" is not necessarily reflective of what the tax burden's actually like.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#43

Post by homero »

itake wrote: post #17
asdf333 wrote: post #11

try Kaiser permanente cheaper and the model is more efficient. yes you give up some choice but there's a reason it is cheaper before you poo poo it I would give it a try with an open mind

I loved Kaiser when I was in SF. they delivered an awesome service. I just wish they were in Florida :[

I too love kaiser

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#44

Post by toodlebunions »

jdminhbg wrote: post #42
csdreamer7 wrote: post #29

A little off topic but I decided to look this up. What would taxes be if we compared the US to Canada? Using the following two tools: https://simpletax.ca/calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator For 50k a year in British Colombia for Canada and California for the US I get the following: BC: $8,372 CA: $11,112 At 100k with 18k contributed to 401k/RRSP the numbers are 17.5K and 25.8k for BC an…

You compared 50k nominal CAD and USD, rather than the same after exchange rate. Googling "50000 usd in cad" gives me $66,280 CAD; plugging that into your first link gives me an after-tax income of $53,317 CAD, which is $40,225 USD, a lot closer to the $38,888 Californian after-tax income. More importantly, besides VAT (actually called GST in Canada) there's all the employer-side taxes that aren't advertised in a job…

Kind of pointless. The CAD had parity with USD not long ago anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#46

Post by stratigos »

so I guess, you all dont actually know the Western Medical Industrial Complex is just a scam? That "Health Insurance" has nothing whatsoever to do with human health?

maybe next century, "benefits" will actually favor the recipient, and not their corporate masters...

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#47

Post by gaelenh »

I run a bootstrapped non-profit in NYC with two employees (myself and my wife). A bronze plan for my family on the NY marketplace is about $1,200+ month with an $8k-14k deductible. I was hoping to get something through JustWorks, but since it's really just one household in our company, we can't apply for that (requires at least 3 separate insurees).

Our combined family income makes us ineligible for subsidies, so I guess my option is to pay $14k a year for an $8k deductible with little coverage. I guess now all plans are HDHP, but with 3-5x the premium.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#48

Post by caseysoftware »

Ha, that's a deal. Prior to joining my current company, I was paying almost $2k/month.. and that was up from $1k/month just 4 years before. :(

I'd recommend checking out your local professional associations. IEEE and ACM have some options:

https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/discount...

https://www.acm.org/membership/insurance-programs

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#49

Post by Mz »

Mz wrote: post #4
nodesocket wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure I have to have full insurance or I'm going to get a nice big tax penalty at the end of year.

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-fix-a...

FYI: Attempt #3 to explain why people should look into DPC:

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2017/01/direct-prima...

Also submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13354383

I assume it will get no traction.

Best of luck in resolving your problem.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped US founders, who do you use for health insurance?

#50

Post by corv »

nradov wrote: post #33

On basis do you assert that $5,520 is ridiculously expensive? What price would not be ridiculous? What makes the cited plan decent and the other lower-premium options not decent?

Healthcare in the States is ridiculously expensive to everywhere else on the planet.
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