Your "benefits" are your salary.
In the US your health insurance is tied to your job, paid out of your pay, and still leaves you with a bill. Here's what it really costs — and what changes if it didn't come from your employer.
What your plan really costs
Hidden from your paycheck, but part of what you cost to employ.
What you pay in full before insurance starts helping.
Deductible spending, copays, prescriptions.
Employer $18,000 + your premiums $6,600 + bills $2,500. Total pay = salary $95,000 + employer share.
Premiums vs. a health tax
Countries with universal coverage pay for it mostly with taxes. Set a public health tax and compare it with what you and your employer pay now.
Many proposals land between 4% and 8%. No premiums, no deductible.
If the employer's share went to wages instead, it would show up as pay. This assumes it did. Real plans vary; it's a comparison, not a forecast.
Job lock: the cost of quitting
Rough unsubsidized cost of an individual plan. Check your state's marketplace.
This is why so many people stay. Not for the work — for the card in their wallet.
What small businesses gain
Small groups usually pay more than big companies for the same plan.
A 5-person shop pays more per worker for worse plans than a 50,000-person company. With universal coverage, everyone has the same coverage.
No brokers, no open-enrollment scramble, no rate hike letters every November.
Talented people stop refusing small-company offers because of the health plan.
"Job lock" ends. People stop staying in jobs they hate just to keep coverage for their family.
What they say vs. what it means
It comes out of your total pay. Money spent on premiums is money that could have been salary. When premiums rise, raises shrink.
You already pay a tax — it's just called a premium, a deductible and a copay, and it goes to an insurance company instead of a public plan.
Your employer picks the plan. The plan picks the network. The insurer decides what's covered. Change jobs, lose your doctor.
The US spends roughly twice per person what other rich countries spend, with shorter life expectancy.
A $5,000 deductible means you pay full price for most care until you've spent $5,000 — after already paying premiums all year.