100%. I went into business for myself 4 years ago and paying for (aggressively shitty) insurance for myself and my family is far and away my biggest monthly business expense.
I work in out-patient physical therapy. Private health insurance companies haven’t given us a raise in pay per treatment in over 20 years and there’s nothing we can do about it. They raise the cost of my own insurance every year. Every fucking year.
I’d like to add the loss of tuition-free state colleges and universities as a barrier - like it used to be until money-brokers found their pot of gold in student loans.
What should it look like? I agree we have a health insurance and general health crisis in the country but not sure 6 month waits to see a specialist like they have in Canada is the solution.
Took me 4 months to get an appointment w a new dermatologist. The old one misdiagnosed a cyst, and the new one found something that the old one just completely missed--a precancerous mole. I don't think the wait in Canada is such a big deal. U.S. health care as well as health insurance is broken.
This is an excellent point that should be in the news. I haven't studied this but it makses sense that paying employees health insurance, especially for small business start-ups, if not the biggest barrier is a major one..
Never mind start-ups. Ongoing small family businesses of less than 10 people are left out in the wilderness. All insurance is costly for them. I know. I've been there.
I now tell young people not to start their own small businesses unless they're a science or tech wiz. The game is rigged against a small business of less than 10 people. I know. I owned one and the costs bankrupted us after 46 years of success.
A win-win for the oligarchs. The creative people are locked in and give their ideas and energy to their captors. No new competition, the CEOs make 1100x the people with the actual talent.
Absolutely!! It is even a barrier for big businesses. I once read that it cost GM $1000 per vehicle to cover employee health insurance, a cost Toyota, VW, BYD doesn't have to bear.
That’s why every other country in the world has surpassed us in entrepreneurship and innovation. We’re at the bottom of the list all thanks to republicans.
75 million MAGAts who have Oppositional Defiant Disorder. "You can't tell me what to do!" "I don't have to get vaxxed!" "It's my money & the gov can't have it!" They're spoiled selfish brats, every last goddamn one of them.
exactly. a friend has a great side biz, but she keeps her pretty good grocery job because that insurance is better than her HS teacher husband's insurance. She's had cancer&other health issues. If this weren't the case she could be doing her biz full time&someone else could have that grocery job.
Before the ACA, my health insurance was $250 a month for amazing insurance. Then the ACA came along and BCBS quit my state and on the ACA site mediocre insurance was now $750, but with the credit it was doable. When the ACA goes away, the price is not going to go down. We need(ed) a public option.
10,000% I can't tell you how many stories I hear from people that won't go out on their own because they're afraid of not having health insurance for their family.
Exactly why our corporate overlords won't allow it. It also keeps unhappy older people in the workforce that could retire otherwise. I wish the Dems would have platformed lowering the Medicare age to 55. It would have been a step forward.
I wish the Dems would have taken away the ceiling for those who price out of paying the Medicare & SocSec payroll taxes. If you're making more than that ceiling, you reap the benefits but don't pay what you should. This would "save" these programs. Rich free-loaders screw the rest of us.
So true. Costs eat small companies alive. Plus, even our huge companies like GM are competing against car companies from other countries that don’t have to pay out crazy amounts of money for employee healthcare. Why don’t democrats raise these obvious points?
Do you mean a single-payer system or addressing cost to the point where insurance, public or private, is no longer needed? I could get behind the latter—we are not in a great place when government or corporation manage that.
100% true. My husband and I could live off the income from our businesses (his podcast, my travel agency) but he keeps his corporate job for the insurance.
Yep, I work full time for health benefits so my husband can run our business. Imagine the innovation our country would see if people had healthcare and could follow their dreams easier.
This country is so dynamic, even when we have one hand tied behind our back. It boggles the mind to think of what could be accomplished without this constraint.
Throw in low-cost college, well funded public k-12, and we'd be dangerous, lol.
I believe that Medicare being available would help.
Private insurance would not disappear, but they would have a "floor."
If you can't offer something better than Medicare, either by price or by benefit, than it's not really a marketable plan.
I agree completely. As an owner of a small family business w/less than 10 employees, I experienced this 1st hand. My being over 55 made the cost even worse. I provided health insurance for my staff & it helped bankrupt a successful 46 yr old company.
This times 1,000. I could freelance but only in someplace like Japan where you can join their national healthcare coverage regardless of income level. Impossible in the USA.
Never understood why small businesses support Republicans approach to health care. Universal healthcare would help employers get away from dealing with insurance for employees. Employees could find the jobs they want, not stay in jobs they don't want just for insurance.
Part of this is how Republicans define small business. If the business nets less than $10 million & doesn't have millions in assets you're ignored when it comes to policy, legislation, and even respect. Why vote GOP? Beats me!
Same goes with not supporting universal healthcare. If you’re a small business owner you want universal healthcare. Would help you compete for workers that hate their jobs but love their insurance.
Yes! Affordable health care-or the lack thereof-is the tool that the obscenely wealthy use to perpetuate their own wealth, while holding back the prospective wealth of others.
Absolutely, Jess! Without universal healthcare, so many people are held back from pursuing their dreams because they’re too worried about medical bills. Let’s remove that barrier and give entrepreneurs the freedom to thrive without the constant fear of losing their health or livelihood.
And let the real small business entrepreneurs/OWNERS have a fighting chance to continue to hire & treat employees with dignity. Health insurance costs for businesses with less than 10 employees are screwed. I know it first-hand.
Another angle is that employees staying in jobs for insurance instead of retiring bc Republicans are fucking around with Medicare keeps younger people out of the job market. I feel badly for the younger people, but I'm not giving up my health insurance until the Republicans are out of power. FTS.
Yes after ACA, people came out and talked about how they could start their own business. How many times do you hear people say “I hate my job but I need the insurance”.
Exactly! And the dems need to start running with this. They need start effectively explaining how the current situation prevents people from starting businesses and instead makes them trapped to their employers.
I don't want to explicitly say where I live or where I don't live but it still absolutely boggles my mind that one of the richest countries in the world doesn't have universal healthcare
If we lose the "pre-existing conditions" protections from the ACA, we will be back to the era of employees with a loved one (with chronic medical issues) who needs coverage so badly they are chained to a job regardless of how badly the boss treats them. I worked with nurses in that predicament.
We own a business and it costs me $1200 a month for insurance for my son and I and that doesn't even cover my husband and we still have a deductible. It's crazy.
💯 Think of all the great ideas or personal reinvention that were not pursued as a result of being tied to private health insurance through an employer.
ONE cent from every purchase countrywide is enough to fund universal healthcare! But wait...the subtard GOPer won't have anything to campaign on among the mis/mal-educated hoi polloi! First it was "god, guns & gays". Then came abortion and Obamacare. Abortion is too hot. See the trend here?
Because the mis/mal-educated Muskian "subtard" with 22 prescriptions has been indoctrinated to parrot "Obamacare bad, ACA good"! by the self-serving GOP nincompoop of a politician! An "animal" farm indeed!
It’s too bad big unions don’t support universal healthcare. With universal healthcare, workers wouldn’t be forced to stay with bad employers for health insurance and would have a stronger negotiating position. Socialism is the future.
I’m all for paying more in taxes and getting rid of the middleman/ denier. Based on income, that is. By getting rid of these so called insurance companies, the hospitals would actually make more money, and be able to hire more doctors and nurses, with a bit better pay.
Would like to hear more about your point here. 401k plans and IRAs gave people freedom to switch jobs, but many lost pension plans which some people really loved. Those pension plans kept people working in the same companies for decades.
I say this all the time..if we weren’t tied to our jobs for healthcare insurance we would all work for ourselves and that is something the establishment will never allow.
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What is the inertia that keeps us from realizing that simple fact?
We have employer-based health care access to indenture service to the profits of a tiny few.
I’m becoming more convinced than ever, this is too big of a mess to fix incrementally.
Throw in low-cost college, well funded public k-12, and we'd be dangerous, lol.
Private insurance would not disappear, but they would have a "floor."
If you can't offer something better than Medicare, either by price or by benefit, than it's not really a marketable plan.
All that goes away is SOME of the profit.