Hacker News Reader

Comment by zikduruqe | Hacker News Reader

Just think. If your ability to get good quality health insurance/coverage wasn’t directly tied to having to be employed for those benefits, we all could pursue our passions and desires.

View on HN

And even income. This is the argument for basic income, people would be free to pursue their artistic desires and inventor ideas.

This is an argument against basic income - the world can't function if everyone simply pursued their artistic desires.

Yes, the world can function without jobs of desperation.

The market will find a new fair price that pulls people away from what they want to do into doing the thing that everybody wants them to do.

Luckily there's a mechanism to entice people to give up some of their time and effort to work on things that other people find valuable.

They don't have to be passively threatened with starvation or homelessness or other unpleasantness to make that trade.

Basic income is not enough to cover everything..

It isn't and hasn't been for a decade (since the ACA)

Medicaid is free and of reasonable quality. Or if you can't get access to Medicaid because you live in a non-Medicaid-expanded state then a silver ACA plan with 94% cost sharing will be no more than 8.5% of your income (which means free if you have no income).

You have to make poverty wages to qualify for medicaid or be otherwise blind, disabled or 65. Some states have spend down programs and some states (mostly red states) do as little as legally possible.

The parent comment was about being tied to a job by insurance. If you quit that job you won't have any income so you will qualify in Medicaid expanded states, where only income matters. And again, if you can't get Medicaid, you qualify for a very low cost ACA plan with very high levels of coverage. Even if you're high income, a silver ACA plan is limited to 8.5% of your income.

The ACA has been in place for a decade. There's no reason for low income people not to have insurance these days and people haven't been tied to their jobs by insurance for a decade.

This is a common concern. But public health care really isn't THAT expensive. Something like $300/month.

Until you have a rare medical condition that forces you into bankruptcy because the treatments are not covered. Bad things happen to good people through no fault of their own.

Source - filed for bankruptcy due to family member having a rare medical condition. It was a strategic decision, because rich fat cats do it all the time when they make bad decisions. Within 18 months, bought new car at 0% interest, had mortgage within 3 years at very low interest. It wasn’t bad at all.

If any other business was ran like the medical industry, it would have been shut down years ago.

I pay just about €150/month, and that's with added premiums for dental and what not. Which is pretty good.

Medicaid is free if you're income is low (such as by not having a job). Or in non-Medicaid-expanded states, an ACA plan will be very low cost and have very high levels of coverage.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com