Health insurance after quitting: does it hold you?.
Health insurance after quitting is a real cost in some countries and none in others. In the United States, employer coverage measurably keeps people in jobs. In much of Europe, your health cover does not resign when you do.
The evidence in the United States.
Brigitte Madrian found in 1994 that people with employer health insurance changed jobs about 25% less often. Later research argued about the size but kept the finding. However, one result is hard to explain away. Business ownership jumps right after people turn sixty-five, when American health cover stops depending on an employer. Moreover, researchers checked every age from fifty-five to seventy-five and found no jump at any other.
In short, people were waiting.
Health insurance after quitting outside the US.
In Britain, Spain, Brazil, Poland, Canada, Australia and most of Europe, health cover is not tied to your job. So if you live there, cross this line off your list. On the other hand, the rules differ widely, so check your own country rather than borrowing an American worry.
Friction, not a wall.
When a US law made insurance available without an employer, self-employment rose by about one to one and a half points among the groups most affected. That is a real effect, but a small one. Therefore health cover makes leaving more expensive; it rarely makes it impossible.
Price your health line.
Write what the same health cover would cost you personally, bought this month, at your age, in your country.
But if your cover does not depend on your job, write “not applicable” and move on.
From the book.
That's the shape of this whole subject. There is no single bundle. There is your bundle, and what is in it depends on which country's paperwork you happen to live inside, which is not a caveat at the bottom of the page. It is the point.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 3: The salary is not a number
Questions about health insurance after quitting.
What happens to my health insurance after quitting?
It depends on your country. In the US, employer coverage usually ends and must be replaced. In many other countries, public cover continues regardless of your job.
Does health insurance stop people from starting businesses?
In the US, the evidence says it does, but modestly. Business ownership jumps at sixty-five, when coverage stops depending on an employer.
Should I buy cover before I resign?
Yes, if your cover is tied to the job. Insuring yourself before you go is one of the lines you can handle in advance.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 3, “The salary is not a number”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
