But it seems like you’re saying that it would be *cheaper* for us to buy health insurance outside of what’s available at work.
I agree that single payer is a more reasonable system and that it would be better to detach health insurance from employment. I’m just not sure that it’s going to be radically cheaper.
It would only be cheaper if you could sock away significant portions of income in tax sheltered retirement accounts so you could get your income low enough to qualify for subsidies (APTC and CSR).
Without the subsidies for my situation, I was looking at upwards of $18,000 for premiums, deductibles around $4k for the family ($2k per person), and max out of pocket of $16,000 or so per year.
So someone in my scenario who is netting (in tax terms) around $100k per year who also has ongoing health issues would be looking at spend around $35,000 per year for care. That is mostly with after tax dollars, by the way (the premiums would be a deduction on the tax return, but not the co-pays, deductibles, and max out of pocket as it wouldn't be enough to exceed the standard deduction).
So take $100k of income, subtract around 25% for all taxes (FICA, federal, and state) gets me to $75k of spendable dollars. Subtract another $35k and you are down to $40k, which is amazingly about the same amount of cash flow I have available by socking away most of my money in tax sheltered retirement accounts and showing $45k of net income.
Some are saying "that's unethical to arrange your life that way as those beneifts were meant for the less fortunate!" I would partly agree with them and used to be completely in agreement a few years ago when I was completely healhy and thought of myself as bulletproof.
In my situation now, I would say it is completely unethical to ask someone to pay around half of their after tax income just to receive the needed treatment that allows them to live a normal, functioning life while be a contributing member of society.
I might do a tax projection for my exact scenario just to show close to actual numbers so everyone can see just how screwed up the situation is.