Potentially the longest thread in history...

[kmanmx]

That was technically the whole point of Obamacare. There are a bunch of flaws with it though, which is why most hate it and some love it.

All Obamacare is, is a subsidized extortion practice in favor of insurance companies. A bill passed forcing employers to offer health plans for those working what's considered "full time" or over 40 hour work weeks. It was advertised to the US public as "social healthcare" which as you abroad lot know, is NOT the same thing. When introduced it forced a lot of lower wage companies to reduce working hours to part time which for those working OT weekly dramatically reduced wages for lower paid employees. A lot of "quick hire" type jobs also stopped hiring for a long while due to federal regulation for mandatory insurance per employee size or some crap like that (it's been like a decade so can't remember fully).

So with that being said, after the dust started to settle the insurance being provided to lower wage work was really ridiculous. We're talking high premiums and high deductibles for what is essentially "liability" type insurance. Let's take for example my last position at Lockheed post contractor swap. Middle class income but if I was to sign up for insurance through the new company it would cost me weekly 356 dollars for their lowest plan with the highest deductible. These plans don't cover a whole lot, annnnnd that aforementioned plan was only a preventative care policy. Yes, 356 dollars a week with a 5000 dollar deductible for basically stuff like STD tests, flu shots, or like vaccines for my kid. If I was to break my arm they would only cover 10% AFTER I had paid 5000. As for the question of say liver transplant or whatever the surgery was, I'd be up **** creek. This was insurance being provided for a job paying 40k a year. Can you imagine how terrible insurance would be for say a Walmart worker making 8.50? How about factory workers making 10-15 an hour? So not only can those folks not really afford mandatory health insurance, they can't even afford to use it. What makes it worse is, if you don't sign up you get fined during tax season. The fine goes up each year as a penalty. Luckily, AFAIK Trump is repealing this....or so I heard.

The flip side to that is, for those that don't ever go to the doctor except for something major we are forced to pay money out of each check for absolutely nothing. It was a 13 year period between doctor visits for me as the last one was my diabetic check which was paid out of pocket due to me going to urgent care instead (it was way closer). Now right now my insurance only costs me 52 a month for a really great set of benefits, and mainly I only care about having it for my kid (and to not get fined). With my wages that is nothing, and technically instead of tech **** I should have got my teeth done. Alas, something about doctors I hate. (My plan does 50% off implants in or out of network, something like a tooth removal is 8 bucks).

The other end of the spectrum though, some people have had really good luck with the actual government provided "Obamacare" subsidy. Where unreachable medications are available for those in need. From the stories I've heard and compiled data in my head from friends of friends, it appears for this to really be beneficial you have to meet certain unmentioned criterias. May or may not be wrong, but it appears only a few really get to benefit from having this provided insurance. I have a feeling if I signed up 6 or so years ago I wouldn't really be able to take advantage of it.

That sounds ****ing mental paying 350 a week for only 10% cover after 5000 deductible. At that point surely you are better off just saving 350 a week incase **** hits the fan. Your $50/mo thing sounds way better, I guess your company is paying way more than that in the background and they just make you pay a tiny fraction of it.

How much appetite is there for true “free” healthcare in the US, at the expense of your military ? Because I basically read that if they cut the US military budget to $200Bn that would basically give you $550Bn for healthcare, which is enough apparently. Seems like a stretch to me. The NHS is having huge money problems and still costs £120Bn a year for 65m people.

 

[PP Mguire]

That sounds ****ing mental paying 350 a week for only 10% cover after 5000 deductible. At that point surely you are better off just saving 350 a week incase **** hits the fan. Your $50/mo thing sounds way better, I guess your company is paying way more than that in the background and they just make you pay a tiny fraction of it.

How much appetite is there for true “free” healthcare in the US, at the expense of your military ? Because I basically read that if they cut the US military budget to $200Bn that would basically give you $550Bn for healthcare, which is enough apparently. Seems like a stretch to me. The NHS is having huge money problems and still costs £120Bn a year for 65m people.

That 10% figure isn't exact, and I think it's actually lower for any kind of invasive surgery. The absolute worst was that it was a preventative healthcare plan. Basically paying them a **** ton of money (roughly half my monthly income) just to tell the government I had insurance on myself and my son. (I didn't pay for insurance in those 3 months btw because **** that)

Yes, my current company pays a lot of the up front cost instead of forwarding it all to us. In fact, my current company is fantastic in most regards (I'm not speaking of Lockheed, as their insurance is worse than ours).

True free healthcare? It'd be abused quite heavily, and there would be an uproar from all aspects medical. The medical industry as a whole here is as corrupt as they come, so I highly highly doubt it'd ever happen. It's to the point that eye doctors here can even afford 911 Turbos and other expensive toys. As far as reducing military budget, HA, won't ever happen. And if they did, if guys like me (and soon iFargle) were still employed by Lockheed and other DoD contracts we would all get massive salary cuts or fired. The healthcare situation in the US is a total cluster ****.

 

[kmanmx]

That 10% figure isn't exact, and I think it's actually lower for any kind of invasive surgery. The absolute worst was that it was a preventative healthcare plan. Basically paying them a **** ton of money (roughly half my monthly income) just to tell the government I had insurance on myself and my son. (I didn't pay for insurance in those 3 months btw because **** that)

Yes, my current company pays a lot of the up front cost instead of forwarding it all to us. In fact, my current company is fantastic in most regards (I'm not speaking of Lockheed, as their insurance is worse than ours).

True free healthcare? It'd be abused quite heavily, and there would be an uproar from all aspects medical. The medical industry as a whole here is as corrupt as they come, so I highly highly doubt it'd ever happen. It's to the point that eye doctors here can even afford 911 Turbos and other expensive toys. As far as reducing military budget, HA, won't ever happen. And if they did, if guys like me (and soon iFargle) were still employed by Lockheed and other DoD contracts we would all get massive salary cuts or fired. The healthcare situation in the US is a total cluster ****.

Kinda a shame they won't reduce the budget. I think the US should just say a big **** you to the rest of the world and make them pay to defend themselves. Countries like Germany take the absolute piss out of the US with their tiny military budgets and just expect the US to defend them from Russia. Trump should just say "screw you guys".

You would lose your job in the defence sector, but i'm sure a 500Bn dollar healthcare system is going to need an equally large work force including IT staff, so you can just hop into that sector instead

But yeah I know, it will never happen. But it would be nice.

 

[Yami]

Funny thing is, PP, I remember us arguing about Obamacare when it came in, I thought you were stupid for not wanting more socialised healthcare. Of course, that's with me living in relative safety under a much better socialised system. Over the years though I've come to understand that Obamacare for most people seems to be the combination of the worst aspects of private and public healthcare. It's amazing for millions of Americans who just didn't have access to healthcare previously, but overall it's an absolute shambles.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

How much am I on ? haha, well relative to UK IT salaries, about average for my position. Relative to US/Aus, about 1/2 lol ? I think in AUD its 47k, so I'd want a raise to 55k ozzy dollars. It's really really frustrating seeing how much i'd get paid abroad To be fair I only had a quick look at Australian IT jobs in Melbourne, not sure if those salaries are true of the entire country.

The average it support salary here is *not* 94k/yr more like 40-65k depending on how many years exp you have and what certs etc, and what level support you're meant to cover.

if I was to sign up for insurance through the new company it would cost me weekly 356 dollars for their lowest plan with the highest deductible.

Seriously that has got to be bull****. Even assuming you're on a decent 65k/yr that's over 35% of a fortnightly salary, another 35% for rent or mortgage would leave you 20% or $196 a week to survive off for petrol/food/clothes/utilities/phone/internet/car insurance which is literally impossible. Something's not right there surely, got any of the docs available showing the plan details?

 

[kmanmx]

The average it support salary here is *not* 94k/yr more like 40-65k depending on how many years exp you have and what certs etc, and what level support you're meant to cover.



Seriously that has got to be bull****. Even assuming you're on a decent 65k/yr that's over 35% of a fortnightly salary, another 35% for rent or mortgage would leave you 20% or $196 a week to survive off for petrol/food/clothes/utilities/phone/internet/car insurance which is literally impossible. Something's not right there surely, got any of the docs available showing the plan details?

My job isn't really support technically, it's just there is noone else to do it. I'm on my own now, so it's basically a Lead / Senior Systems Admin/Engineer role. Build servers, maintain them, O365 global admin, Azure, PowerShell, a bit of front end web dev, VOIP, Cisco networking etc. The whole shebang. Tier 1 through 3 support is just in between jobs as they won't hire someone to do that specifically.

 

[PP Mguire]

Funny thing is, PP, I remember us arguing about Obamacare when it came in, I thought you were stupid for not wanting more socialised healthcare. Of course, that's with me living in relative safety under a much better socialised system. Over the years though I've come to understand that Obamacare for most people seems to be the combination of the worst aspects of private and public healthcare. It's amazing for millions of Americans who just didn't have access to healthcare previously, but overall it's an absolute shambles.

You and quite literally almost everybody else I knew because they A) didn't read the actual bill and B) didn't believe me at the time because of my age. It's not amazing at all for the people who didn't qualify for free "Obamacare" nor the people being forced into the insurance they otherwise couldn't afford and are fined for year after year. They can't afford insurance, so they surely can afford yearly fines! #logic

The average it support salary here is *not* 94k/yr more like 40-65k depending on how many years exp you have and what certs etc, and what level support you're meant to cover.



Seriously that has got to be bull****. Even assuming you're on a decent 65k/yr that's over 35% of a fortnightly salary, another 35% for rent or mortgage would leave you 20% or $196 a week to survive off for petrol/food/clothes/utilities/phone/internet/car insurance which is literally impossible. Something's not right there surely, got any of the docs available showing the plan details?

Sadly, it's not, and that was in my previous position making roughly 42k Gross. Unfortunately, it's not bull**** at all. That is literally what my weekly charge would have been for their lowest cost plan. I went looking through my emails and the offer was a portal through the company website which I don't have access to anymore. The reason it was so high is because the employer was not going to offset any of the cost to the employee for insurance plans and they worked through the most expensive provider in the country. My current company offsets almost all of the cost and due to this we have ridiculously good plans to utilize.
After they took over I did not sign up for a plan through them and luckily I was picked up by the ALIS team 3 months later. (Superior took over Jan of 2017, I was picked up in March last year). My current insurance cost is 52 a month and my base salary is 69k and I get 20% in shift differential. That 52 a month includes medical, dental, vision full coverage for myself and my son, as well as voluntary disability and voluntary life insurance (basically free 70k if I die). The company before Superior (the first company I was with when I started at Lockheed in 2014) I paid 142 a month for myself and my son, but the coverage was pretty basic. Still way better than what was offered with the 356 a month and half the cost.

 

[iFargle]

Yup, gonna have to crunch the numbers to find out when it'll turn profitable for me.

Energy provider here offers a "smart" tariff along with their normal one.
Normally you'd pay ~28c per 1kWh regardless of the time you use it.
Smart plan says you pay:
~14c from 9pm-7am
~28c from 7am-3pm
~54c from 3pm-9pm
With the Tesla battery bank you can program those times in so that you draw power only from the battery in peak charge time, and outside peak you use as much solar as you can with any excess going to the battery; if there's not enough the battery can pull during 14c period to charge itself, ready for next 54c period
Should mean some pretty significant savings without even bothering to include the added value to the property for if/when you sell, plus I get the advantage of having an entire-house UPS 13.5kWh storage capacity should mean I can keep running for hours.

edit: ARGH I cannot find a calculator that lets me put in all those variables gonna have to do it manually

.... I pay around 2.3c per kWh..... yikes

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I was considering canning my insurance cause it's gone up to $98 a month now, I don't use it for anything other than avoiding the tax levy and getting a yearly dentist service/fluoride/etc treatment done. It'll work out like $20/mo cheaper but I guess I'm leaning toward keeping it for that price, better to have than not

Also I'm a little salty now I know how cheap elec is over there god damn that must be amazing. My latest bimonthly usage was 1445 kWh and cost me $445, ****in aircons are 500-650w each and I have 4 of them in different rooms. This is why I'm looking into solar so heavily now lol, espeically as the govt offers a rebate on the panels you buy atm. Well, technically you get solar "credits" which can be bought/sold so some/most companies just offer you a flat $ discount in exchange for ownership of credits.

 

[Trotter]

Also I'm a little salty now I know how cheap elec is over there god damn that must be amazing. My latest bimonthly usage was 1445 kWh and cost me $445, ****in aircons are 500-650w each and I have 4 of them in different rooms. This is why I'm looking into solar so heavily now lol, espeically as the govt offers a rebate on the panels you buy atm. Well, technically you get solar "credits" which can be bought/sold so some/most companies just offer you a flat $ discount in exchange for ownership of credits.

Just received my current electric bill.

1809 KWH @ 0.101120 (total rate, combo of three) + 12.08 (customer charge and surtax) = 195. Last month was 172. This is for a 1500 sg ft home with central AC and three adults (washing/drying clothes, cooking, showers). Water is not included.