One concern I have is that you're targeting startups and small businesses, but what happens when the company grows? I imagine they'd be able to get much better pricing if they switch to a more traditional arrangement, but then employees would likely be upset that most of them will have to change plans.
Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
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Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#122The health plan rates available to individuals cost quite a bit more than ones negotiated by a big company or consortium of smaller companies. When I last had to do my own insurance, it was $2200/month for a high end, lowish deductible plan that covered my family. Choice is nice, but the costs are so high now that I'd rather have the lower negotiated rates with less choices.
Are you including the portion the big companies pay (DD line on W-2?)
$25-26k a year for a low deductible family plan seems about right. I have a HD plan through my company and it costs roughly that including my HSA contributions.
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#123Having recently been through this, I appreciate the push to support small business in what is a confusing and stressful area of administration. Inherent support for distributed teams is also a nice perk. As others have mentioned, the high cost of individual (e.g. Marketplace) insurance is one obvious drawback that remains. Even with 1 non-owner employee you can get better rates through e.g. simplyinsured.com However,…
Suril here. We think of our service as an outsourced benefits team member. We handle ongoing payments and issues with carriers (which are surprisingly common), payroll adjustments, tax support at year end, and all employee questions. Would you prefer to pay a fixed, upfront fee?
Personally yes, I think that'd be fair. Similar to how I don't pay my patent lawyer or even accountant monthly. Presumably many things change as a business grows, but this is a (very) small business perspective.
Related, what happens if I decide to drop Savvy?
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#124One side effect just to think about, i wouldn’t take employer coverage because I’m covered by the VA, so any amount of premiums is simply an added cost, plus the large deductibles that often come with most health plans now.
However this type of system I would probably be incentivized to get something for my $500 per month. So I would probably elect to get some additional coverage even just the bare minimum without going over. This has good and bad side effects, one is that now I cost the employer $500 per month while before I was 0, but at the same time it’s better for the health plan as an under-utilizer to keep the overall costs of the plan low.
Would ancillary plans be eligible such as dental or vision or is it limited to a Health plan?
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#125One side effect just to think about, i wouldn’t take employer coverage because I’m covered by the VA, so any amount of premiums is simply an added cost, plus the large deductibles that often come with most health plans now. However this type of system I would probably be incentivized to get something for my $500 per month. So I would probably elect to get some additional coverage even just the bare minimum without go…
As long as you are enrolled in health coverage (whether yourself, or on a spouse's plan) you can spend your employer's health funds on dental and vision.
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#126As someone with a chronic illness, thank you for this. I don't want my employer to be responsible for my insurance. I want portability and privacy. I want more than just the options my employer decided to pick. If this becomes a trend, we could see the individual ACA marketplace strengthened. Right now part of the problem is that they are missing a lot of the healthy people in the group market, which is partly why th…
Thanks! We appreciate it. We believe Savvy and the new regulations will strengthen the individual market.
I spent a few years as an insurance regulator (albeit on the P&C side) and I was following these regulations. I'm glad that you are out there evangelizing this, but I think in the long-run you may have to figure out how to provide additional value or you may be disintermediated. We are already at the point where we need to wring every little bit of unnecessary cost out of healthcare.
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#127I believe any efforts directed on pushing more and more money into the already heavily overfunded, corrupt healthcare industry, are counterproductive and not going to fix anything. Give them more money and they just increase the prices, they are at the controls anyway.
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#128Health insurance should have nothing to do with your job.
THAT is the problem the USA needs to solve.
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#129As someone with a chronic illness, thank you for this. I don't want my employer to be responsible for my insurance. I want portability and privacy. I want more than just the options my employer decided to pick. If this becomes a trend, we could see the individual ACA marketplace strengthened. Right now part of the problem is that they are missing a lot of the healthy people in the group market, which is partly why th…
They didn't leave the market for that reason.
Aetna, for example, left to spite the government for blocking its merger with Humana, and lied about it: http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/24/investing/aetna-obamacare-hu...
Re: Launch HN: Savvy (YC W20) – Give employees tax-free cash for health insurance
#130This is great! As a founder, I have long felt employee-sponsored health care is awful. A company should not be required to be intertwined in the medical concerns of their employees. It is a very weird conflict of interest. I am solidly behind the complete unwinding of employer-sponsored health care plans.
Also insurers are very predatory towards small groups. There shouldn’t be small Or large groups! It’s a bogus way for insurers to price discriminate and cherry pick.
The other really weird thing is that monetarily employees do not fully value the employer health care contributions. And it’s even stranger when picking coverage for families. So the idea of being able to have a flat monthly “contribution benefit” really helps both sides have more transparency around the financial benefit of health care.
If market-based health care can ever work, it has to be in an efficient market something like this. This is great news and I agree it could be huge! Good luck with the launch.