Thread for obviously newsworthy stuff

[JohnT]

99% of employing businesses are classified as "small business" and, of those, 95% of small businesses have 10 or fewer employees.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/866118

This is the market my agency works in, businesses smaller than 50 people. I can tell you from loooooong experience that the average small business owner subsidizes as little as possible. You can tell them until you're blue in the face that "Bill Gates didn't get to be the richest man on Earth by being cheap to his employees", but they do not, will not, listen... which is why they remain small.

[pchang]

While all employers I have seen offer the HDHP plan, employers in tech and biotech subsidize quite a bit more than the minimum required.

[rah]

The Issue I had was with the headline, which implied that it was an ongoing daily issue when the question asked was if it happened once during the year. That's what I meant about shock reporting. I'm not saying it's not an issue but they sensationalized it. In market research we see it quite often. And I'm happy that my global employer does better providing a decent plan.

[JohnT]

To compare, the USDA estimates the avg family spends 9.6% of its income on food. Housing costs, according to the BLS, averages 37% of income. Utilities are 10% of income. Transportation is 4.8% according to the BLS. These four needs are already @ 61.4% of income.

That one guy, living by himself, who doesn't use his HDHP? He's at 67% of his pre-tax income. If he gets sick and happened to select the "more expensive" PPO plan (but with a lower deductible, making total cost of ownership cheaper)? 74% of income. If he was stupid and chose the HDHP? 78% of income. If he has a family, non-working spouse, has the HDHP plan and maxes out the deductible? He is now at 112% of income.

The only way one can say the article was incorrect is to not consider health a "need", which is silly.

[JohnT]

For starters, apologies for not posting a link to the article. My bad.

Thanks. Definitely shock reporting.

Not at all. The part of the article which I quoted specifically states the following:

Middle-class households tend to struggle with paying their health care bills rather than utilities, for instance. Health care costs have outpaced wages and inflation, pushing more Americans into high-deductible plans, which can backfire when serious health problems arise.

As someone who sells this stuff, here is how it works (at least in Texas - your state may be different):

An employer decides to offer health insurance so they go to their insurance guy and says "give me some quotes and tell me how this all works and how much it's gonna cost me". Insurance guy gets quotes... HMO, PPO, High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), presents them to the business owner who, again, asks, "how much is this going to cost me?"

The answer is this: The employer has to pay 50% of the lowest offered employee-only plan. Not 50% of the selected plan. Not 50% of any employee-only plan. 50% of the lowest-priced plan offered. This alone incentivizes the employer to select the cheapest plan we can give them. Guaranteed - I've never seen it happen where the employer, faced with this calculation, says "well, let's not offer the HDHP plan - that would be wrong!"

So, here are some BCBS quotes I ran this week. First number is monthly price, second number is employer matching, third number is what the employee pays, fourth number is annualized employee expense *just for the insurance* for a 5-person group (numbers rounded to nearest dollar), 5th number is the annualized expense for the employer:

HDHP
[coverage option, monthly employer portion, monthly employee portion, employee annualized, employer annualized]
Employee: 530, 265, 265, 3180, 3180
Employee+children: 1059, 265, 794, 9528, 3180
Employee+spouse: 1059, 265, 794, 9528, 3180
Employee+family: 1588, 265, 1323, 15876, 3180

This plan has a $6,500/$13,000 deductible

HMO:
Employee: 625, 265, 360, 4320, 3180
E+C: 1250, 265, 985, 11820, 3180
E+S: 1250, 265, 985, 11820, 3180
E+F: 1,815, 265, 1550, 18600, 3180

This plan has a $3500/7000 deductible

PPO:
Emp: 738, 265, 473, 5676, 3180
E+C: 1477, 265, 1212, 14544, 3180
E+S: 1,477, 264, 1212, 14544, 3180
E+F: 2215, 265, 1950, 23400, 3180

This plan has a $1500/3000 deductible.

In the best case scenario, a sick employee who maxes out their deductible pays $7,176 per year for their covered health care expenses. And God forbid they have to do non-covered items like put wheelchair ramps in their house, for stuff like that isn't covered at all under these plans.

Median household income in the US is $57,600. The cheapest of these plans, assuming no usage by the one person who is covered, is 5.5% of that figure. The cheapest of the family plans, assuming no usage by the family who is covered, is 27.5% of pre-tax income. 27.5%, just for health insurance!

And, of course, if in the family both mama and baby are sick, then the most expensive of the family plans (including deductibles) is the HDHP one, which will cost $28,876, 50.1% of the median household pre-tax income. The least expensive of the plans is the HMO, setting them back $25,600, or 44% of the median household pre-tax income.

And I live in San Antonio, where median household income is $1,500 less than in the US.

This is not "shock reporting", Rah. This is math-based, financial reality. This is healthcare in America.

[Giancarlo]

Proteus, but those republican congressmen work so hard (stealing). They deserve that high salary, free for life benefits and unlimited vacations. Could you imagine working 93 days a year for that lol? Btw that doesn't exclude bribes/donations and speaking engagements lol. And Duncan Hunter still struggled financially lol.

[Giancarlo]

Alex Jones (Infowars), the well known conspiracy theorist, who also was known for making transphobic rants, has been caught with an open browser tab for transgender pornography while filming passages for a promotional clip

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alex-jones-trans-porn-phone-infowars-marissa-minx-a8510801.html

Why am I not surprised at all?

What a hypocritical bigot. I stand with my trans brothers and sisters. Alex Jones is a raving hypocrite. And he got caught while filming for a promotional clip? What an idiot.

[Proteus_MST]

Regarding money, minimum wage & co:



https://twitter.com/DearAuntCrabby/s...75441443336192


Also:

https://twitter.com/Zebrafarm2000/status/1033386639199010817

[-Jrabbit]

Dude, it's YOUR strawman.

[Giancarlo]

The President should do two things on the same day at the most opportune time before the mid-terms.

1) Release all documents currently being hidden by the crooked deep state to the citizens.

2) Reduce the sentence of all non-violent criminals being incarcerated by 2 years.

And crush the Ds just like they were crushed after the Civil War.

Except the republicans are gonna getcrushed in the midterms. Let's face it... If republicans can barely win conservative districts (and even lose them), imagine what will happen nationally.

[rah]

2) Reduce the sentence of all non-violent criminals being incarcerated by 2 years.

Yeah, this would result in a lot of minorities being released from jail that would probably vote for Democrats. Only our Kidiot would think this would help republicans.

I won't even waste time talking about his other insane thought.

[Kidlicious]

The President should do two things on the same day at the most opportune time before the mid-terms.

1) Release all documents currently being hidden by the crooked deep state to the citizens.

2) Reduce the sentence of all non-violent criminals being incarcerated by 2 years.

And crush the Ds just like they were crushed after the Civil War.

[Aeson]

He's just uh ... researching for his story. Yah, research. MANLY research.

[Kidlicious]

Geez, you sound like Kenobi claiming the NHL is biased anytime his beloved Canucks are called for more penalties than their opponent.

"Unbiased justice" does not mean tracking the percentages of offenders from each party. It means following where the evidence leads and exposing the criminals, regardless of political affiliation.

Strawman.

[Proteus_MST]

Alex Jones (Infowars), the well known conspiracy theorist, who also was known for making transphobic rants, has been caught with an open browser tab for transgender pornography while filming passages for a promotional clip

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/alex-jones-trans-porn-phone-infowars-marissa-minx-a8510801.html

Why am I not surprised at all?