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Comment by neogodless | Hacker News Reader

It's been about 2.5 years. Was paying under $700 for the two of us.

The difference in pay between W2 and 1099 was $30,000 / year. This more than covered all taxes and health insurance costs. (And even the W2 rate was much higher than typical full-time salaries.)

The main difference in taxes is the 15.3% you pay towards FICA, where an employer has to cover most of it for W-2 (you still pay 6.2%.) I don't remember all the exact numbers any more, but if 1099 is ~25% more than W-2, odds are pretty good you can do better on your own, especially if you take advantage of the solo 401(k) to reduce your tax load.

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> Was paying under $700 for the two of us.

What did this buy, though? That premium sounds like either a "health sharing ministry" or some kind of barebones catastrophic plan. Both are smart options if a person has good income and a financial cushion, but they're a much lesser coverage than what most big employers would provide.

> if 1099 is ~25% more than W-2, odds are pretty good you can do better on your own

I've used a wider margin as a rule of thumb when considering it in the past. I'll have to rerun numbers based on my current income and benefits.

> especially if you take advantage of the solo 401(k) to reduce your tax load.

That secret $54k deduction... probably the biggest benefit for anyone who is moderately high-income and retirement-minded.

They are probably young without kids.

A silver level high deductible health plan in a high cost of living state is about $400 per person for early 30 year olds. You can assume health insurance costs $350 per person, plus or minus 10%, in healthy years. Then you have to multiply by age rating factors. So a family of 4 with parents around 40 will be ~$1,500 per month for a silver HDHP.

This pdf is a good rubric:

https://www.nj.gov/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcrates20...

As I said, it was a good plan. I don't remember exact numbers, but low deductible (maybe $2000), low co-pays, lots of things covered such as (some) fertility, mental health, etc. We were 39/34 at the time.

It was not a health share ministry or barebones catastrophic. It was something like Blue Cross Silver, though I don't remember the exact name (and the name would reveal more about my location than I probably should share.)

My comparison was to a plan with a previous employer that cost me $400/month (my portion) and was worse. So paying "$300 more" for a better plan also took a lot of the sting out of it.

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