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It’s More Unaffordable to Not Have Health Insurance
By Manny Otiko | California Black Media
As someone who has been self-employed as a rideshare driver and a freelance writer, I’ve received a crash course in making sense of the quirks and complications of the American healthcare system.
You learn very quickly when you’re self-employed that you have to do everything yourself — and, in the process, you have to understand all of it, too. You have to be your own HR department and accounts payable staff. That’s when you realize the value of employer-paid health insurance.
The cost of healthcare
With full-time employment, in some cases, employers pay all the health care insurance costs. In other cases, they pay half. When your monthly premium is $400, that $200 subsidy could go a long way.
I’m single, but it’s even worse for families. My brother, who has a wife and two children, pays more than $1,000 for his monthly premium. Fortunately, he makes a good living and can afford it. But many families can’t.
“The total costs for a typical family of four insured by the most common health plan offered by employers will average $28,166 this year,” according to the annual Milliman Medical Index, an independent assessment of health costs provided by a private risk management firm.
