> If you're capable of earning $172,000 in salary in the US, you can trivially get an employer that covers essentially all the cost of your health insurance
Employers rarely cover all the health care premiums for you entire family.
Most non-startups will cover 100% for the employee, but if you're not single you'll end up paying quite a bit to cover your spouse & kids.
you can pay for health insurance if you don't have a job. I've done that many times in between jobs; it's totally feasible for single people. I was paying between $250-$320 per month as a healthy 30 year old.
most jobs I've had only cover 50% of the healthcare premiums so big whoop... I'm saving $150/mo by getting health care through my job... the money isn't worth needing a job.
this may not be the experience for people not in tech/high salaries, with medical conditions, or families but I sometimes get tired of the blanket statement that you need a job to get healthcare in the states.
That is partially because they are skilled workers. The guys who mow lawns in my bay area neighborhood can command hefty rates too. Of course health insurance remains an issue.
How many US employers provide the kind of health insurance that you don't end up anyway paying over $1000 a year (for a family) in all kinds of fees and deductibles and whatever?
> Perhaps the relevant thing is "household where at least one person makes >100K/yr" since the benefits are probably tied to the type of job.
I think you're reading too much into the OP's off-hand guesstimate. At every company I've worked for, the engineers earning $200K are on the same health insurance as the high school graduate in the warehouse earning $40K/year. The higher compensation makes it easier to clear the deductible/out of pocket maximum hurdles, obviously, but there wasn't a secret insurance plan that got unlocked at higher compensation.
Your math is bad, and you're using a nonstandard set of numbers.
Generally in CA, and most of the US, you would receive health insurance through your employer, and the bulk of your medical insurance premiums are non-taxable subsidies by the employer.
Point me to a US company paying 150k that doesn’t cover your health care. The majority of companies also have very generous vacation (unlimited in a lot of cases).
You're probably right at the lower-end of the income spectrum, but any non-joke, non-freelance software development job in the US will include health insurance on top of the quoted salary at little or no cost to the employee.
I have a chronic health condition that needs some fairly expensive drugs and relatively frequent doctor visits and procedures. My total out of pocket healthcare expenses are less than $500 per year.
Salaried positions do include benefits packages, and in the US, the health insurance can be expensive or impossible for certain people to get. That said, if you know of one of those $124 freelance jobs in LA...
Agree, as a Bay Area SWE, health-care is not a problem as many companies give you very good insurance, HSA, dental and vision for free or with family (wife + 1 kid) 1K per month.
health insurance is my big wish. 20 hrs/wk with health insurance I'd work for 1/3rd my salary.
EDIT: I have a family like most people.
EDIT2: I'm thinking about how insurance isn't as expensive as giving up more than that in salary, but maybe I need the security of steady work on the resume, sick leave and a job to lean on if things get tough.
Any decent software employer in the US will have good insurance that basically guarantees your max out of pocket health expenses won’t exceed a few thousand dollars. That doesn’t really account for the difference.
I agree for the general population. But shouldn't a job paying 6 figures have decent insurance? I have two dependents with major health issues, hitting out of pocket max every year. Still I am able to save for retirement and not live paycheck to paycheck. I do not earn 6 figures.
The number one thing keeping me at my most-likely bullshit job is that health insurance in America is only affordable if you have an employer to foot the bill. If I was single, I don't think I would care much. But I'm married with three kids, and health insurance is a very effective retention tool.
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