Here’s How Many IPhones You Need to Avoid to Afford Medical Care
House Republicans yesterday released a replacement for the Affordable Care Act . And spokesman Jason Chaffetz said today that people can afford higher premiums by choosing to “invest in their own healthcare,” rather than buying the latest iPhone.
If the bill becomes law , many people will receive less generous subsidies to afford insurance. On the other hand, we will all be allowed to save more of our own money in a health savings account . This is good, but it cannot replace insurance. This is how Chaffetz sees that we come up with money to invest:
Americans have a choice, and they must make a choice. So instead of buying that new iPhone that they just love and want to spend hundreds of dollars on, it might be worth investing in their own health.
Never mind that smartphones are especially important for low-income people as a way to find jobs and accomplish other important tasks. Let’s say we all buy so many shiny new iPhones that we might ditch some of them to afford medical care. Here’s how much you need not to buy:
- Employer-provided health insurance costs 25 iPhones for the average family, although the employer pays most of that amount. There are only about seven iPhones on the hook in the family.
- High deductible plans are common, and the average employee deductible is two iPhones . If you have a smaller employer, you will probably pay more for an iPhone.
- If you get insurance on the marketplace (in other words, you have what some call the “Obamacare Plan”), your out-of-pocket costs will be much lower. Here is an example of a non-smoking 40-year-old man who earns $ 30,000 a year; depending on where that person lives, their bonuses can range from three to 12 iPhones per year.
But what if you decide not to buy insurance? This will save you a lot of iPhone, and the new bill will remove tax penalties for uninsured people. That way, you can “make a conscious choice,” as Chaffetz said, when you have the option to go back to iPhone comments , and perhaps you choose one of the following:
- If you twist your knee in New York and need ACL repair surgery (as I did a few years ago), Blue Book Health Care states that the “fair” fee is 24 iPhones .
- If you decide to have a child – or if you don’t have that choice, in part because the bill doesn’t fund Planned Parenthood – it will cost you an average of 12 iPhones . This, of course, depends on the location: some San Francisco hospitals charge 38 iPhones . Oh, and that’s not including prenatal care, anesthesia, caesarean section or complications that you or your baby may have.
- If you choose to get cancer instead , chemotherapy will also put you back on many iPhones. We’re looking for 113 to 218 iPhones for a typical chemotherapy course for breast cancer, not including any other care or procedures you may need. Or, more simply, a stack of iPhones from two and a half to five feet tall.
Since Chaffetz mentioned the “latest” iPhone, I used the $ 749 estimate for the 128GB iPhone 7. If your phone is cheaper, you will have to ditch it to afford medical care.