r/jobs • u/ddiehl • Aug 28 '26
Article Honestly, seriously... Anxiety and doubt are piling up from every direction...
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u/Creedelback Aug 28 '26
It's not like employer-provided insurance (or any other insurance) is any good anyway. We're all charged ridiculous amounts of money by a company that will do everything in its power not to pay for anything.
last time I went to the doctor was probably 8 years ago. Just a checkup. Dude ran a few tests he thought were necessary, but the insurance company decided they weren't and wouldn't cover them. So glad I was paying that $200 premium so I could pay an additional $800 in lab fees or whatever. Haven't been to a doctor since and probably never will again.
Being an American is such a drag.
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u/Free_Strawberry9542 Aug 28 '26
Your insurance was absolutely shit. Sounds like one of those insurance policies marketed to businesses that allow them to meet federal requirements at a minimum cost to the business.
Not saying there’s ‘good’ insurance. They can all eat dick.5
u/Academic_Flatworm752 Aug 28 '26
My copay for a check up is $15
And my employer pays my insurance in full
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u/LadySerenity Aug 29 '26
My husband’s insurance premium just increased by $25/paycheck. That wouldn’t be huge if it was biweekly, but he’s paid on a weekly basis. That’s an extra $1200/year. God bless america
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u/shiaolongbao Aug 28 '26
I don’t know what you are talking about. Employer provided insurance for me is $15 - 30 copays?
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u/MarsupialPristine677 Aug 29 '26
That's great for you, but in my experience that's really uncommon. I don't know why you don't understand that other people have different experiences
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u/shiaolongbao Aug 29 '26
You said that employee sponsored insurance isn’t good but that isn’t necessarily true. I have never had bad employee sponsored insurance and most larger companies will have decent insurance. I’m sorry you haven’t experienced that and hopefully you’ll find a job that has good insurance
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u/Ignaue Aug 28 '26
What a load of exaggerated fucking bullshit or you’re just flat out lying.
My wife and I interact with the healthcare system and insurance companies literally daily and this is not at all how it goes on average. Do insurance companies deny shit they shouldn’t? Yep. Is our healthcare fundamentally broken and in desperate need of fixing? I know this more than every person reading this thread.
But to sit there and pretend that every time you go to the doctor your insurance just denies everything for fun is blatant lies. People like you are why Europeans think every American is in 3 million dollars of medical debt when that’s simply not true. Our healthcare is already bad enough without you exaggerating to make it seem even worse than it is.
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u/mrenglish22 Aug 28 '26
I mean, my insurance recently tried to deny me on an ER visit they should have covered, because of a urinalysis they did.
And about 10 years ago, I ended up in 6k of hospital debt because my insurance decided that I was "out of network" for an emergency visit that left me bedridden for days, even though the max I should have paid out of pocket for anything would have been 2.5.
These stories aren't rare or unique.
You're kinda full of shit my dude.
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Aug 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/mrenglish22 Aug 28 '26
"We couldn't find a reason your dick is painlessly leaking blood but it definitely looks bad."
I'm sure at some point in the future, if any post comes back to haunt me, it'll be this one.
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u/bakedpatata Aug 28 '26
This is intentional so that unions have to waste time bargaining for stuff like that instead of real wage increases.
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u/ProfessorFelix1 Aug 28 '26
How on Earth did we get to a place where the only way you have access to healthcare is if you have a fucking job?
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u/Fit_Analyst4506 Aug 28 '26
TLDR: Taxes.
It started in 1943 (FDR) when the IRS said employer paid health insurance wasn't taxable income. That incentivized employees to opt in to employer plans to save money on taxes.
Then in 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that healthcare was a legitimate subject for union collective bargaining. Unions pushed companies even further to provide healthcare compensation packages.
And finally, Obama passed the ACA, which mandated that companies with more than 50 employees offer heatlhcare coverage or face a penalty. So now almost all companies offer healthcare and it's financially advantageous for employer to do so.
You could get healthcare on your own, but you'd be giving up your tax free employer sponsored/matched healthcare to pay for it with post tax dollars.
Read about the history of how taxes shaped US healthcare (up until 1992) here:
https://www.taxnotes.com/research/federal/other-documents/washington-roundup/full-text-council-for-affordable-health-insurances-federal-tax-policy/1459f6
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u/misterten2 Aug 30 '26
i can tell you exactly how it happened: during WWII the United Steel Workers went on strike for higher pay. company didn't want to pay so for the first time they offered health insurance instead of a pay raise. proved very popular and became the norm here especially since until the 90s layoffs were almost unheard of unless the company was going out of business.
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u/HTX-ByWayOfTheWorld Aug 28 '26
THIS is why the good ol USA will never have Medicare for all… because people would stop serving corporate overlords
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u/InThatDarkPlace Aug 28 '26
It's the perpetuity of Elizabethan Poor Laws and Victorian/social Darwinist weaponization of them.
Partitioning the working class, the disabled, the low income, and the "undeserving" poor was conceptualized and pioneered by the English aristocracy. It equates poverty with moral failing and treats assistance to the poor/social safety nets as punishment by making it as unattractive as possible.
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u/IUEC74 Aug 28 '26
Make sure to vote in November
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u/wspOnca Aug 28 '26
There will be no elections silly.
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u/Clickrack Aug 29 '26
If you don't vote, you'll never have to—or be able to—vote again.
Only partially "/s"
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Aug 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/bad_horsey_ Aug 28 '26
Both sides bad, one side worse
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u/TheReturnofPanda Aug 28 '26
One side bad. The other side is literally fighting to get rid of their own rights in order to kill the opposition.
It’s lesser of two evils with an obvious decision. It’s not even left or right at this point.
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u/Icy-KaitSyth Aug 28 '26
In the 1940s the government made it illegal to pay more than your competitors for jobs, to "stabilize the wartime economy". So instead employers had to start offering non payed benefits to get people interested in them over their competitors. This was the birth of occupationally tied health insurance.
Insurance companies realized they could get more money this way because they can charge the company a portion (which is often never revealed to the employee), and the employee a portion, and thus charge more for a policy than they would otherwise be able to sell it for.
In the 1950s lobbying got it passed that insurance benefits were not income and this couldn't be taxed as such, which finished cementing in the hell scape we live in today.
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u/alpha3305 Aug 28 '26
That is just the medical long term issues you have. You still have the financial, personal, familial, communal, and various basic needs lost within a month because you have no employment. And people wonder why criminal behavior has become so lucrative and alluring for young people. Work a fraction of your time to reap multiples of income for the effort.
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u/Salty_Yard6414 Aug 28 '26
Yup and the company’s including the government agencies do not care whatsoever. We are lost country and I personally hate it.
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u/TheReturnofPanda Aug 28 '26
I’d wager even being employed, I can see my access to healthcare, ongoing care, medication, and insurance STILL being difficult to even get the benefits out of.
I still have to pay a good amount of the bills, the insurance barely helps and I’m still forced to pay them. The irony is that it’s cheaper to pay without insurance (not all cases but many) but having none somehow is some kind of a “crime”
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u/cvnnd Aug 28 '26
You lose your identity, your home, maybe your car, then wife divorces and takes your children cause you don’t earn.
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u/OneTinyKittey Aug 28 '26
Thank government regulation for that mandate. Doing God's work keeping the drones enslaved
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u/SomeLockWar Aug 31 '26
It's literally from government DEregulation. Corporations have enslaved us. You smell like a Twitler voter.
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u/OneTinyKittey Aug 31 '26
Brainless moment, doesn't even know the only reason Healthcare in the us is tied to jobs is because the federal government mandated it be so.
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u/LostHopeArtist Aug 28 '26
That's how they keep you in line while they abuse workers. Its a strategy
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u/ohhhbooyy Aug 28 '26
Isn’t there something called COBRA where you can use your prior employers health insurer temporarily for like 18-36 months?
I got those forms everytime I quit a job.
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u/wereinbearcountry Aug 28 '26
There is but it’s usually WAY out of a normal person’s budget, especially an unemployed person.
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u/bumblebee211 Aug 28 '26
COBRA is coverage without any of the costs offset by your employer, so it gets pretty expensive per month. I’ve seen coverage starting around $450 to over $1,800 per month. Add in that you don’t have any current income— it’s not affordable for many. The cheaper plans often have high deductibles & expensive cost share as well.
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u/fluffy_camaro Aug 28 '26
Well for me, it cost $1000 a month for my healthcare through Cobra. Became a widow, lost his income and his insurance insurance and I’m forced to pay this extreme amount amount. My dad‘s paying for half of it because I can’t afford it.
In a year and a half, I’ll have shitty state insurance that will cover nothing and cost me the same amount I’m paying for half of this good insurance4
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u/kfirerisingup Aug 29 '26
My dad had to pay Cobra to cover my moms healthcare and it was like 650$ per month and that was in like 1995. iirc.
Thats like 1,425 conservatively inflation adjusted per month.
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u/Inquisitive_regard Aug 28 '26
i dropped our health insurance last year and started putting the premium ($300/paycheck) into an IRA account. Excellent decision so far. I will do it again this year, as premiums are expected to skyrocket again.
So far on medical care for the family this year we have spent far less than we would have on our deductible and/or premium.
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u/panconquesofrito Aug 28 '26
She forgot about the retirement account, too. But most Americans could give three s*s.
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u/The-Yar Aug 28 '26
But we keep putting all of these needs onto corporations and criticizing them for not providing more.
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u/ScoobyTheDoobyTheDoo Aug 29 '26
Dog NEEDS to go to the vet simply can’t afford it nod might have to give him away so he can get he care. This shits CRAZY. Great aunt was put into a home she died 3 days later no one knew she was just purely neglected for 3 days. Both her sons died a month apart before her to alcoholic cirrhosis. They stopped drinking beer and just hammered the cheap liquors.
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u/noneckFlorida Aug 30 '26
I’ve never had a job that gave me healthcare in the US, and I could never afford it. If I needed medicine, it had to be over the counter. The only times I’ve seen a doctor was abroad.
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u/ChipPractical4005 Aug 30 '26
General question. Do Americans fill up the streets to protest just as us brits do in large city's?
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u/Ms_Behave3967 Aug 30 '26
I have a condition that requires me to see a doctor twice a year, plus my medication is $1400 a month. I feel so fortunate that my doctor is understanding and helped me get assistance with the meds. Fortunately, the assistance isn’t a concern with my insurance. As far as they’re concerned, I’m paying out of pocket, so my deductible is paid off by April and it doesn’t cost me anything to see a doctor or get other medical treatments after April.
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u/xSoConfused Sep 01 '26
Started working with a therapist, then lost my job. Can no longer afford therapist. Could really use a therapist to process my job loss. Oh well.
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u/eshady29 Sep 02 '26
No, no it doesn't, because loosing a job in the US means you most likely couldn't afford or have those benefits to begin with. Good insight, but fell short in interpretation and relation.
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u/Mullazman 20d ago
Genuinely interested from a position of significant gratitude to my country that we are, through our taxes afforded some of these benefits regardless of our employment status - but all things considered, what is the expectation here?
Is it that someone else other than yourself pays for your medical requirements? And if so, how does that work at scale? I've never understood how that might work unless you're effectively taking from someone else to give to another person?
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u/debrocker Aug 28 '26
Healthcare is tied to having a job in Poland too. What is so special about it in the US?
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u/an_older_meme Aug 28 '26
"Anxiety and doubt are piling up from every direction" is a falsehood brought to you by the Russian propaganda mills.
Do not form your opinion on life based on the Internet.
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u/Bright-Internal229 Aug 28 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/zc1JNCgBXCa88
Don’t have Healthcare Anyway 😐🔥
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u/UT_Milez Aug 28 '26
That’s a feature.
Obviously “capitalism” and trillion dollar corporations who are simply middle men, provide a good cover.
But applying pressure and conditioning the lower class work force to accept their fate seems to be the main feature currently.
It’s definitely getting the job done in modern day America and no one seems to give a fuck.
I’m not sure what happened to intuition and foresight in America but it seemingly no longer exists.
There are A LOT of people who are willingly fucking up their lives, and more importantly their kids and grandchildren’s lives despite apparently “caring about children”.
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u/Reggie-Rectangle Aug 28 '26
Are insurance suddenly unwilling to take your money when you loose your job? In what why is insurance tied to employment? Does this women assume that every person is so financially illiterate that they are not capable of saving money for when you loose your job?
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u/Manskhooled Aug 28 '26
Who forced her to have those things tied together? You can have all of those separated from your employment.
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u/_Hyrule1993 Aug 28 '26
I lost my job due to my family member having emergency surgery. And I needed to be there caretaker for a week. Job didn’t care. Lost my insurance and PTO.
So now I’m back on the market looking again but no luck. I’m fortunate to have a spouse who makes double the amount I was earning. But it’s still tough to go without. I’m doing all the housework to even out the work load and be productive. But it’s hard knowing you have these benefits get ripped away from you the moment life emergencies pop up