D
deleted480308
A number of things to unpack here, and it kind of shows that you haven’t had to buy your own stuff priorSo the government forced health insurance to sky rocket.. just like they did with student loans and tuition. But the only way to fix that problem then is to reformat the whole system. Just out of curiosity, I have no knowledge of actual prices since I haven't had to buy insurance ever in my life (Yay having workings parents and getting accepted to school before 26!) but what is the cheapest insurance plan one could buy, if Medicare was abolished tomorrow?
According to eHealth.com, the cost for a single-person coverage healthcare is generally ~$440 / month. For a family, 1,160$ a month. That's 13,920$ a year. The average household income is 60,000$ pre-tax. 22% tax rate leaves you with 46,000$. I live in NY so 6.33% tax rate = 42k / year.
14,000 is 33% of your household income to health insurance.
900$/month for rent = 9600$ / year = 22% of household income.
12k / year for food = 29% of your household income for a family.
That leaves the average American household with only 6.6k a year. I haven't even factored in gas, car insurance, heating and cooling, internet, cell phone, all things the average American needs to live, get to work, and function in a society that demands you to be "connected" at all times - Doctors aren't the only people that take call or work extra hours at home, so internet and cell phone are essentials.
Basically, this leaves the average American will extremely very tight wiggle room to even begin saving. I didn't even factor student loans that I'm sure the parents are paying off either!
Btw the 14,000 for a family is one of the cheapest plans possible. I don't know what this covers, but you better pray you don't ACTUALLY get sick and need a sudden visit to the ER or get into a car accident, you'll be in debt for a very long time. And you can't really have a rainy day fund because where in the budget was a savings even possible?
33% of your income for the average American for the LOWEST plan is ridiculous. And the average income salary of 60,000 is probably even high for a lot of people.
1. The insurance wouldn’t be $1100/month for a family without govt mandates on elaborate coverage. I had a catastrophic individual plan years ago for <$100/month. You can also buy into religious cost share programs for <500 for a family, they exclude preexisting conditions (and they should)
2. Wages can go up if companies aren’t buying insurance. Your employer doesn’t care much about how you are compensated when compared to the total dollars you cost them. My wife negotiated an almost $10k raise when we got insurance through me because her boss could stop paying for our insurance