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Republicans are arguing over if trans people can play sports while the world laughs at us
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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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I'm not from the US. Do you know how much of your income tax goes to the health care system?
I live in the Netherlands and we actually have a pretty weird system of private insurance companies, but they're not allowed to make a profit and it's mandatory to have insurance. Anyway, my partner and I together pay about €300 per month, which actually doubled is about what you pay for 4 people (though for kids here it's free).
Copay is not a thing here. The legal minimum deductible is €385 per year. You can raise it to max €885 and then you pay less for insurance every month. I have the max deductible, my partner has the lowest.
$4500 seems like an insane amount! I have never reached that or even gotten close. The government here sets the limit for deductibles and that's always a big political discussion. There's some talks now of removing the deductible altogether, though that would mean raising taxes elsewhere.
How do deductibles even work in the US? I had my appendix removed and here you then never pay anything because it's like a life threatening thing. I think you do pay for things like medicine and the ambulance ride until you reach your deductible, but for things like going to the GP or life saving surgery it's just covered.
And here if you're not working or earn less than certain thresholds it becomes cheaper or free. But isn't that similar in the US, like medicaid or something?
I pay quite a lot of income tax too of course which also partially goes to the health care system. I think it's actually quite expensive here for people who have a reasonable income. If you don't earn anything it's mostly free but you still have plenty of health related costs like the deductible but also stuff that isn't automatically included with insurance like dental care.
Last question: what do you mean by "max out of pocket $15000"? Is that like your combined max deductible for your family?
Income tax will vary because we have a federal tax plus state, plus local municipal/city. We're around 28-30% total taken out when I review my pay information.
Technically, because insurance is based on employer negotiations, it varies greatly with coverages, deductibles, "in-network" doctors or hospitals, etc. We go through my wife's employer as it's better coverage. It's a higher deductible plan because, like you, if you have a high deductible it's less out of pocket per month. If we opted for the better coverage and lower deductibles, it'd be around $1,200/mo.
Several years ago, I had a CT scan done and was "billed" $9500. Insurance "negotiated" that down and it was, at the time, a $2500 deductible. I went back later for a MRI and that was over $11k. Another deductible because it was through another visit at another facility. My individual max out of pocket was achieved at $5k-6k I don't recall, and it took a few years to pay that off (like a loan).
2 years later, my wife had pulmonary embolisms (blood clots) that hospitalized her. That was up to $7k plus medications and monthly follow ups. We amassed over $20k medical bills within a few years, and that's no where near as bad as some people have it.
We're alive, in medical debt among other debt, but healthy again. I guess in the long run we should be happy we're healthy, but again not everyone is so fortunate. What bothers me is almost having to choose if I could "afford" to live or not.
And yes, 15k maximum out of pocket for anything medical for all 4 of us. I don't Recall if we have coinsurance after that, thankfully we've never hit that limit to find out. Coinsurance would be we're responsible for 20%of anything over the 15k. If it were $20k, we'd pay 15k max plus $1k for the 20% over.
Financially we can afford it, yes, for now; but just crazy to think how quickly our finances could change with layoffs, then with that you lose insurance, and quickly lose your house, etc. That's why I would run for office just to get to push for real beneficial change.