Almost everyone here is a young healthy male. Pretty much the only thing we really need health insurance for is car accidents. If you ramp up your deductable > $1000 health insurance will cost less than your cell phone bill. Your company could give everyone high deductable insurance and agree to pay their entire deductable if they get in an accident. Barring a freakish number of accidents you'll probably save a bundle of money. Of course this doesn't account for people with chronic health problems. But they're not likely candidates for startups anyways.
Until you get a cavity ($350 and up for a filling, these days), or need new glasses (ditto), or have get some minor infection, and have to visit the doctor for a course of antibiotics (easily $200, not counting the cost of the prescription).
I'm not saying that it's impossible to survive without health insurance -- just don't underestimate the costs of seemingly minor medical services.
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Almost everyone here is a young healthy male. Pretty much the only thing we really need health insurance for is car accidents. If you ramp up your deductable > $1000 health insurance will cost less than your cell phone bill. Your company could give everyone high deductable insurance and agree to pay their entire deductable if they get in an accident. Barring a freakish number of accidents you'll probably save a bundle of money. Of course this doesn't account for people with chronic health problems. But they're not likely candidates for startups anyways.
Until you get a cavity ($350 and up for a filling, these days), or need new glasses (ditto), or have get some minor infection, and have to visit the doctor for a course of antibiotics (easily $200, not counting the cost of the prescription).
I'm not saying that it's impossible to survive without health insurance -- just don't underestimate the costs of seemingly minor medical services.