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A comment on CEO of Uber: Gig Workers Deserve Better. Parent comment

Re:CEO of Uber: Gig Workers Deserve Better by jschwartzi on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @12:52PM (#24122493)
As an example my fiancé and I decided that we could support both of us on my income. So she quit her job. And then we had a very long difficult time figuring out that it would cost a lot of money for her to have a baby on my insurance because the out of pocket maximum would just about wipe out my savings. But her old insurance has a maximum that’s about 10% of what mine would be in the same situation. So we’re paying almost twice as much per month for COBRA continuation. Whereas if I could take the 400 a month my employer spends on my behalf I could get insurance that’s just about as good as she’s getting.

In the US insurance system your employer gets to decide what it costs for you to get medical care. The ACA cemented all the worst parts of the insurance system and made it illegal for me to choose my own insurance if I want to work for a larger company.

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Re:CEO of Uber: Gig Workers Deserve Better by stetrain on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @02:04PM (#24123559)
The insurance marketplace brought about by the ACA actually seems like a pretty decent idea. The problem is that not everyone is using it and most people are still tied to whatever plan their employer picks. Usually politicians say something like "People like the health plans they have and want to keep them."

Meanwhile I have changed jobs once in the last 3 years but in that same timespan I have had 6 different health plans / providers because companies renegotiate their plan every year and often pick a new one because they can get a better deal or the previous plan increased in price.

Having my own chosen plan via an open marketplace that was mine and not my employers would have actually resulted in more stability.

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