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Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

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Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#41

Post by zanny »

jaibot wrote: post #32
mjn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it's not really a proper solution. My move from the U.S. to Denmark has been smooth when it comes to healthcare; I've been very impressed at the lack of paperwork and lack of stress over my coverage. But nonetheless I grudgingly supported PPACA, despite it seeming like a mess, because I can't see another way to solve the tied-to-employers issue that's politically feasible, at least for now.

It may become easier to reform healthcare if/when people see that PPACA doesn't Ruin Everything Forever.

The kind of sentiment that breeds that ignorant opinion is propegated by those that don't want to see single payer because it hurts their profits. The health insurance / for profit hospital / big pharma lobbies are aburdly massive, and like many (most nowadays) industries, they abuse their wealth to exploit faulty political process to see what they want instituted brought into law and to keep advances that invalidate their profit centers from being legal.

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#42

Post by jdminhbg »

mjn wrote: post #29
Matti wrote: post #14

Looking at the Nordic countries you might possibly make the counterpoint that publicly funded health care implies a taxation model that makes it economically unrewarding to become an entrepreneur.

Is taxation actually higher in the Nordic countries for entrepreneurs? If you bootstrap yourself to $100k as a 1-man company in the Valley, the taxes come out to something like: $7,000 CA income tax $14,000 self-employment payroll tax $16,000 federal tax (after deducting eligible portions of the above two) ------- $37,000 (37%) In Copenhagen, it would come out to [1]: $8,000 labor-market contribution (AM-bidrag) $24,…

You are missing 25% VAT in Denmark, vs 7.5%-10% sales tax in California.

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#44

Post by bbanyc »

rdl wrote: post #34
riggins wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was this just for yourself Might be NYC. I can tell you individual plans in NY run $1,500/month.

Why is NY/NYC health insurance 5-10x what it is in WA/CA?

New York state law requires strict community rating, which means that an insurance company must charge the same prices to all customers.

Elsewhere people with known health problems are charged higher premiums to cover their higher health costs. In New York that's illegal, so instead everyone is charged high premiums.

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#46

Post by [deleted] »

mgkimsal wrote: post #6
pixelmonkey wrote: post #2

+1 this research being done. When I bootstrapped Parse.ly by doing consulting in 2009/2010, my biggest costs were rent and healthcare. I wrote about this in my blog post, "Startups: not for the faint of heart". http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2011/04/02/not-for-the-faint-of-h... To get a good "sole proprietorship" plan for me cost >$1,100 a month. My healthcare cost nearly as much as my rent in Astoria, NYC. I've spoken t…

was this just for yourself, or a family? $1100 seems steep - a 'high deductible' HSA plan for a single person should be < $500/month - it's currently < $350 for two of us.

[deleted]

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#47

Post by tarikjn »

j2d3 wrote: post #26
tarikjn wrote: post #16

I am from France and moved to the US over five years ago. I have been altering between working for an employer and taking time off to work on my projects. Within the first 2 years, I realized how cumbersome it was to switch healthcare and be covered between jobs, so I signed up for a private healthcare at once. I chose to have a low general coverage but a good one for accidents, I pay $20-40 for a doctor visit, nothi…

That's great for you, obviously you have no documented chronic health conditions that would exclude you entirely from private insurance. Unfortunately for me, I do, and am considered uninsurable as am individual, leaving only employer sponsored group coverage as a viable option until next year.

I actually do have a minor chronic condition, causing inflammation of my sinuses and a subsequent poor sleep/fatigue. I can permanently cure it by opting for a nasal surgery which my private insurance is willing to pay most of the cost. Until then, I treat it with a nasal corticoid, one flask cost $150 in the US, $45 with the drugs copay I had on my first job, but only 25 euros shelf price in France, I just refill when I visit (I use about 5 flasks a year). I definitely agree that the PPACA provision easing coverage for those with a pre-existing condition it a good thing.

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#49

Post by nwhitehead »

sethev wrote: post #17
Matti wrote: post #14

Looking at the Nordic countries you might possibly make the counterpoint that publicly funded health care implies a taxation model that makes it economically unrewarding to become an entrepreneur.

I've never understood this argument. Unless the marginal rate is actually 100% how does higher taxation cause business owners to want less money? This strikes me as employee (i.e. dollars for hours) thinking. If you had to work more hours to earn more than I could kind of see how a higher marginal rate would discourage you from doing that but the owner of a $5million/year business doesn't work 10 times more hours tha…

You're right to look at the marginal tax rate but you're not considering all the options available. For goods like a hamburger it's easy to see why a tax on hamburgers makes people buy less hamburgers. Hamburgers cost more with the tax, so you can save money by buying chicken nuggets instead. This doesn't mean everyone will switch to chicken nuggets, just that many people who slightly preferred hamburgers to chicken nuggets before the tax will now switch over and slightly prefer the chicken nuggets after the tax.

For business and entrepreneurship the argument is the same. Increased taxes and other types of costs decrease the rewards so you'll end up with less of it. It's not that business owners don't want more money. It's that they are continually deciding between many options.

For example, years ago I had to decide between going to graduate school, getting a job in industry, and starting a business. The tax and subsidy breakdown is drastically different between all three. Of course tax implications wasn't the biggest factor in my decision, but it mattered.

Re: Is Employer-Based Health Insurance A Barrier To Entrepreneurship? (2010)

#50

Post by microcolonel »

You know, we could just stop messing with healthcare providers and insurers, and let them provide a worthwhile service rather than just a legal one.

Oh, and try to shut down the FDA too, with all their liability fobbing and bias toward dangerous, old, and addictive treatments.

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