alt Hacker NewsI don’t remember the last time I had to wait more than a few days to see a GP or more than a week for a specialist on an employer’s PPO insurance plan. I’ve had them at several employers ranging from university to FAANG so it’s not exactly something only fabulously wealthy people have access to.
The problem is there is a huge bathtub curve in insurance quality between employers and the public market. It’s a rude awakening when you can’t afford COBRA rates and have to fall back to a “bronze plan” or whatever is available on the exchanges.
Replies
That’s not necessarily an insurance issue.
Part of ACA was the creation of regional health cartels. If you’re in a region with shitty networks, care may be hard to get. Where I live there’s a teaching hospital with a doctor focused medical network and a big Catholic hospital chain.
In my scenario, There is a good market for cardiac, OB, and some other specialties in each network. The rest is a monopoly— the catholic network doesn’t staff neuro for example, they just have consultants.
On the other hand, most states with significant tech workforces have Medicaid which most people will qualify for if they're laid off (I did!) and these are excellent. People pay for cobra despite a public option being available.
FAANG employee health insurance? Something like 1% of American workers get that, if even that many. Then throw in my oil company friends here in Houston and a few other industries which give premium benefits and you still have a tiny subset of the American workforce getting exceptionally strong benefits. Not at all indicative of the experience of most Americans.