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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

Is that a thing Americans still grapple with? “I need to keep this job to keep health insurance for my kids”? I thought the ACA helped eliminate that in some way?

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Yes, that is absolutely something Americans still grapple with. ACA helps in theory, but healthcare is still outrageously expensive.

Amongst other things, because nurses and doctors are paid very, very highly in comparison to other countries.

In some cases they’re paid appropriately compared to it being low elsewhere. But it’s doubtful that’s a drop in the bucket of where the money goes.

As an American, corporate health plans are excellent, even covering things like IVF. Pretty sure the bare-bones plans are not as comfortable, so yes, “I need to keep this job to have this excellent health insurance for my family”.

Yes, it's still a thing. Unemployed or self-employed people can now purchase insurance plans through state exchanges and there are subsidies available to low income families. But the insurance subsidies that you get from large employers are generally still much better.

Thus we still have about 8% uninsured. Some just can't afford the premiums at all. Others could afford it but choose to take the risk of going without.

There are around 5 million uninsured people in my state, and the Republicans are talking about cancelling the ACA again because apparently that isn’t enough.

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