Is employer sponsored health insurance meant to keep working class people trapped?

I’ve worked a full time job for the same company for 13 years. I’d been running a deficit for quite some time and ended up with a lot of credit card debt. Unfortunately despite working 40+ hours and going over my budget I realized the problem wasn’t my spending, it’s the fact I don’t make enough money.

Fast forward I started my own business to help make ends meet. Believe it or not it’s been a great success. I make more money on my days off than I do at work! Problem is, my days off are always booked and I literally have almost no time anymore to do anything else. Including cleaning my house, yard work, laundry, etc.

But I can’t because if I cut one day off of my full time job I lose my health insurance through them. Private insurance costs will wipe out my earnings I drop down even one day from my full time job. Right now I’m paying $70 a month in premiums. It will jump to almost $400 a month to purchase private insurance.

Am I doomed to work 7 days a week forever now? The employer sponsored health insurance feels like a handcuff to my employer who doesn’t pay me enough to make ends meet, but they get to use their employer plan as a way to chain me to a inadequate paying job.

Ps. My business makes me more money than most jobs are hiring for so going to a different company doesn’t really solve my problem. I just need an employer who will provide insurance without demanding I be there 5 days a week.

How do other self-employed people in the US get affordable insurance?

submitted by /u/Naive-Deer2116
[comments]