61–70 of 125 posts
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.
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 (mor…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 (mor…
Correction: British Columbia's MSP Premiums for a single adult are $75/month or ($900/YEAR).
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?
How about on the basis that comparable plans cost about 1/3rd that before the ACA?
Also the plan that you claim was comparable before the ACA was probably not comparable at all because it had a lifetime coverage cap. So it was objectively worse because if you got a serious and expensive medical condition you would have been cut off at some point.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 (mor…
> That particular simpletax calculator is weirdly broken -- it seems to ignore payroll taxes. ... Once you include CPP (Canada's version of Social Security) and Employment Insurance That is disappointing. I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶a̶m̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶e̶n̶t̶.̶ (Can't amend, the above post is too old.) > someone earning $50k in BC pays just over $10k... plus another $900/month (more if you're not single) of mandatory tax-but…
As cbowal noted, the $900 is per year, not per month. I'd fix it above, but apparently my comment is also too old to be corrected now...
I chose BC because it seemed to be having it's own tech boom in Vancouver and has very mild weather in that area. I felt that would be relevant to alot of people here.
Oh, I entirely agree -- the Vancouver area is the only part of Canada I would want to live in. (Well, maybe Victoria, but that has the same weather and tax rates.) My point was simply that Canada's reputation for being a high-tax jurisdiction isn't entirely undeserved when you consider that most of Canada has significantly higher taxes than BC.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And yet many people somehow manage to live in the Bay Area on $50K per year. It's not comfortable but it's certainly possible. Most of us don't get to live exactly where we want to.
Typically this happens on food stamps and subsidized housing. Which is a route -- but it's a little harder for a tech worker though than someone working retail, because the income documentation is less and higher variance.
A little background: The health plan market roughly divides into individual health plans, small group (2-50 FTEs), and group. You fall into the individual market, at least for now, it seems. A small group health plan isn't likely to be much less expensive, if any, and the small business health exchange SHOP (CoveredCA, Healthcare.gov, etc), the plans are pretty much the same individual plans. The Affordable Care Act…
A couple of years ago a snafu caused my insurance to go unpaid. When it got cancelled, I couldn't pay for a policy anywhere due to enrollment rules, and I think the monthly penalty on my taxes ended up being $230 or so per month my wife and I were uncovered.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about on the basis that comparable plans cost about 1/3rd that before the ACA?
Only for those without pre-existing conditions or other major risk factors. For them, comparable plans cost about 3 times as much, or weren't available at all. Also the plan that you claim was comparable before the ACA was probably not comparable at all because it had a lifetime coverage cap. So it was objectively worse because if you got a serious and expensive medical condition you would have been cut off at some p…
I have a pretty expensive PEC and my state had a high risk pool that was much less expensive than what I pay now. (To be clear, I think the preexisting condition exclusion ban is wonderful, just adding a data point to the conversation)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Typically this happens on food stamps and subsidized housing. Which is a route -- but it's a little harder for a tech worker though than someone working retail, because the income documentation is less and higher variance.
That's not the typical route at all. A single person with a $50K income can absolutely afford to rent a small apartment with a roommate in some of the cheaper neighborhoods and live without food stamps or subsidized housing. There may not be much left over for dining out or entertainment but it's totally doable.
Get a spouse who works and is gracious enough to pay for your health insurance via his/her company plan :-) That's how I do it, but this probably puts me in the "lucky" category...
This is actually a pretty significant incentive issue with health insurance. Companies are encouraged to not choose the most comprehensive plan, so that their dual-income married employees choose to use the other company's insurance.