Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

apnorc.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 563 posts

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#401

Post by lanfeust6 »

colingauvin wrote: post #369
beezle wrote: post #311

Americans confuse need with 'nice to have' which leads to the "I don't have money for food/rent/hc" problem. You do not need cable tv or home internet. You do not need an iPhone or top end Samsung. There are many mid-range Android phones much cheaper that can add a MVNO phone plan for around $20/mo that has more than enough data for necessary internet. Key word: necessary. OTA HDTV is available to many millions at th…

This is so out of touch it is almost comical.

Best to look at the data rather than relying on anecdotes.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#402

Post by ryandrake »

whateveracct wrote: post #394
ryandrake wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tax advantages of an HSA The minuscule tax advantage here is that 1. you're paying for your health care costs with pre-tax dollars, but you can generally still deduct these even without an HSA, so +0 advantage there, and 2. you are allowed to invest the savings, and gains are not taxed at the federal level (but may be taxed at the state level), so the advantage here is your savings account size x your effective tax…

> for most of us yeah so for most of you, don't do it? I like that I can stuff away $7k+ I'd be stuffing away anyways tax free. And all I have to do is keep a responsible emergency fund.

So, in other words, the typical American "Hope and pray that my health costs don't outrun my savings/investment rate" philosophy. Different strokes for different folks, hope it works out for you.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#403

Post by _1tem »

diet_jerome wrote: post #356
Steve16384 wrote: post #73

Exactly the things that a well meaning society should provide to its citizens. What's the point of "progress" if we can't provide the basics to the majority?

If market forces were allowed to operate, these needs would be fulfilled. Instead, the usa and a lot of europe have an enormous amount of regulation and government involvement in housing, healthcare, and food. Those of us who want progress and the world to be a better place to live should politically push for deregulation in these three markets/industries.

This is a No True Scotsman fallacy. If America, the #1 champion of free market capitalism cannot get it right, then it may be impossible. Communists claimed the same: they say it didn't work because we haven't tried "true communism" yet.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#404

Post by cma »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #374
stackskipton wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Did everyone just forget what it was like before Obamacare? Nope, I was adult working at IBM. I had very good medical insurance where it was small copay every time I saw the doctor. I had to get minor surgery on my foot and it was 50 bucks total. I think total cost billed to insurance was 500. Condition returned in 2023 and I was forced to get surgery again, I ended up paying ~750 dollars because of my Out of Pocket…

> ObamaCare made things much better for those who could not get healthcare. For some people who could not get healthcare. I haven't had usable health insurance since before the AMA because it can exceed my total earnings. > For most, High Deductible plans becoming the norm left people in much worse state Which tees up my larger point (thank you). For years 3 thru 10+ of the ACA: News orgs (eg KaiserHN): 'Insured are…

At $12K a year you were at the poverty line, silver cost sharing reduction and you have something like $1K-1.5K max copays and deductibles. You might have not known about it and tried to buy a bronze plan instead, but the silver cost sharing reduction removes almost all of the deductible and the premium credits at the low end bring the premiums to near zero.

Most of Obamacare brings max medical expenses to about 10% of income for a single person but there are a few sudden bumps like when you make too much for the cost sharing reduction, or when you fall below poverty line but your state didn't expand Medicaid even though federal government was going to pay 90% and those states probably come close to losing more just from subsidizing emergency care for people in the gap than the would have paid to expa d before the latest tax bill locked them in to never being able to expand.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#405

Post by lesuorac »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #265
kccqzy wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And I have good health insurance I think your example illustrates how low people's expectation can be when it comes to calling health insurance "good" in the U.S. If I were asked to pay $3400 for urgent care or $250 for an ophthalmologist I would not consider the health insurance "good" for its intended purpose of insuring against medical expenses. (It might be good for other purposes like enabling you to invest wi…

Yeah, I wouldn't consider any HDHP (High-Deductable Healthcare Plan) to be "good insurance".

It's pretty good when your employer funds a good chunk of the high-deductable.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#406

Post by bobsomers »

gruez wrote: post #162
Epa095 wrote: post #138

I encourage everyone to do the following simple exercise: look at the main stock market in your country, and see how far back you must go for the main index to be half of what it is today. The answer is probably somewhere between 5 and 7 years. Then find salary statistics, and see how much the average salary has increased in the same time. The answer is probably somewhere between 20 and 30%. And it really is as simpl…

>And it really is as simple as that. It really isn't, because your "simple" comparison is bunk. For one, it's measuring stock vs flow. Stock prices measure stock, eg. the size of a piggy bank. Salaries measure flow, eg. your annual salary. Directly comparing the two results is meaningless. It's easy to demonstrate this with the piggy bank example. If your salary was 50k/year, you saved 5k/year, then your piggy bank w…

> Moreover stock prices incorporate a variety of factors that are irrelevant to wealth distribution.

This handwaves away the most important fact w.r.t. stocks and wealth distribution, which is that wealthy people own stocks and poor people don't. A whopping 38% of Americans don't own any stock.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#407

Post by lanfeust6 »

Steve16384 wrote: post #73

Exactly the things that a well meaning society should provide to its citizens. What's the point of "progress" if we can't provide the basics to the majority?

The US is the only odd one out in the first-world for healthcare, so we'll leave that aside (most people are covered through their employer, but many people aren't)

Everyone eats in the US. The tweaker on the corner eats. People can acquire food through a dozen different institutions like charities, soup kitchens, the church, etc. I don't see how a system that would coerce everyone to rely on fixed-number rations is meaningfully superior. At best the argument seems to be "spare someone the indignity of getting free food, by forcing everyone to get free food"

Housing is part-way. Homelessness scales with cost of housing, given the data. There are mediating services like shelters and low-income housing. It's not enough but it's not nothing. The solution is to do as cities do where cost is better: build more, enact zoning reform.

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#408

Post by bravetraveler »

fritzo wrote: post #398
bravetraveler wrote: post #111

Despite early success I'm truly no closer to stability [in terms of housing] . With the wrong landlords, I'm practically living with Mom/Dad while nearing my 40s. Fiefdom-building isn't helping at all. I can deal with the responsibility of a leaky roof. I can't deal with another year of No Dogs Allowed.

I'm curious, where do folks place dogs/pets on the necessity-to-luxury spectrum, or in the hierarchy of needs?

Pretty close to personal agency. Let me ask the 'rents [again].

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#409

Post by emushack »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #195
emushack wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I'm at a loss for words with this comment. So, in case you aren't from America, you might not know this: the food that is the cheapest also happens to be the food that is the least nutritious. Americans who are poor cannot afford fresh vegetables, fruit, meats and gym memberships. They can afford cheetos. It is quite the spurious correlation to say that obesity causes hunger. Just wow.

I don't know where you get this from Unprepared foods, in the US, are much cheaper than prepared foods. A bag of Cheetos (16oz) is $5. A pound of chicken legs is $2. 2 lbs of rice is $3. I'd suggest you instead argue that low income people work multiple jobs and therefore have no time to cook. I've had this debate a lot before.

LoL! https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000FF1101 Current price/lb for chicken is $4.23. But of course that's from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, soooo.... can't trust that can we!

Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people

#410

Post by OnlineGladiator »

WalterBright wrote: post #328
ziofill wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully agree. Additionally, stock price is driven also by expectations of further growth, which in order to keep happening, something's gotta give so it must chip away at quality of the final product too (cheaper materials, cheaper manufacturing, etc) with a consequent enshittification. My parents, who live in Italy, could afford a stone house from the 1800s in their thirties. I live in Canada and everything's made…

Just for fun, watch a movie from the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc., and take a look at the interiors of houses. We've got a lot better today, and a lot more of it. Even watch an episode of Dynasty (about rich people). Look at the crappy TV in the corner. I remember taking my last CRT TV to the recycler. I was sure glad to be rid of it.

You realize you're an enormously privileged, wealthy individual telling other people that don't have your wealth and privilege how they should feel the same as you? You don't even say "in my experience" you just condescend to others that they should recognize how great the world is for the 0.1%, completely unaware that it isn't great for people that can't afford food and housing. Nobody gives a shit about their TV when they're hungry on the street.
Post reply on HN