I pay ~550 for mandatory social security + 110 for the supplementary private one (which is mandatory too now). The private takes care of (medium quality) glasses, new (not tested yet), and pension in case of an accident.
That’s almost 8k per year, more than Silvaire. And I earn considerably less than him.
Silvaire, do all employees pay the same amount for the same health plan, or is it related to the wage ?
Needless to say, here the « rich » are kindly requested to contribute a higher proportion (to be tolerated and not guillotined 
).
What is the cobra scheme ? Why keep 50k with your heath insurance ?
That’s almost 8k per year, more than Silvaire
How is 8k EUR p.a. more than 24k USD p.a.?!
As stated, my PPO health insurance cost for my wife and I is approximately $7K or €5800 per year plus copays, with more restrictive options available for half or so. Of that the Government effectively pays say 30 or 40% through it being tax deductible.
@Jujupilote, the first thing to answer your question is to explain that while there are definitely commonalities between employer provided health insurance options in the US, there are also significant differences and the health care options are part of what an employer uses to attract employees. My company is pretty good, other companies and many times small companies are typically not so good (HMO only, look up the term if you’re interested) which leads to the now classic situation of the primary breadwinner doing something entrepreneurial with no health coverage but potential big $$ payoff, while the spouse works a routine and possibly low paid job at a big company with good health plan options.
Having said that for context, I’ll answer your question… assuming you’re still awake: 
Although it may exist and I’m no expert, I have never heard of company provided health insurance cost being related to the pay level of the employee. It typically costs X for the employee only, Y for employee poise spouse (my situation) and Z for a family with any number of kids, and those numbers are fixed.
I keep $50K cash in hand to cover us if I lost my job for an extended period, all costs including health insurance.
I just compared to the 7000$ figure provided above.
Thanks.
7k USD as it is 70% sponsored by the employer… 24k is what one has to pay when let go, if under a Cobra plan that allows you to keep the company plan but bear 100% of the costs for up to 18mo. If you have to sign up for an individual plan it is even more expensive.
The French employee social security contribution is not directly comparable as it also finances unemployment and pension accounts, not only healthcare.
My insurance cost is employer subsidized 50%, my wife’s portion of our monthly cost is not employer subsidized. As a result the total monthly cost paid to the insurance company is $1050, of which we pay $700, tax deductible.
$24K annually is too high for open market insurance for a relatively wealthy non-subsidized buyer, ours would be about $1200 a month, no more than $1500 (as stated in most above for those who read). Also stated above is that low income people get a substantial subsidy under ACA (we would not) as well as the tax deduction.
My gross pay is about double what it would be in the UK for the same position (or a bit more) and at least 50% higher than in Germany. France, I’m not sure.
Silvaire wrote:
My insurance cost is employer subsidized 50%, my wife’s portion of our monthly cost is not employer subsidized. As a result the total monthly cost paid to the insurance company is $1050, of which we pay $700, tax deductible.
I made an error here, we pay a total of $7000 per year, not $700 per month. So the corrected total monthly cost paid to the insurance company for our health insurance is $875, of which we pay about $580 from gross pay, untaxed.
The balance of the post is correct as written.
Thanks you very much for this insight.
T28, I only counted the health part of Social security of course, and of course all employers pay for health in addition to employees. This figure is not on the pay bill anymore but I will dig my old ones to give you an idea.
Edit : I don’t have the detail, but the employer pays about twice more taxes than us on the payroll.
Basically, when you earn 1€, the employers pays about 2€ all-in.
MedEwok wrote:
A Der Spiegel article today mentioned how many people (in Germany) saved a lot of cash this year, simply because many activities to spend cash on were cancelled (bars, restaurants, travel etc.). So economists are now debating wheter this spending will simply be delayed or never take place.
That’s certainly apparent in my household economy. Maybe I’ll save up and finally buy an airplane. :-)
Airborne_Again wrote:
That’s certainly apparent in my household economy. Maybe I’ll save up and finally buy an airplane. :-)
Sounds like a good move :)
I too would do this, if we weren’t looking for a house to buy, which will eat up all my spare cash. Unfortunately, house prices don’t seem to fall or even stagnate at all from the Covid-19 induced economic downturn.
