Automatically Covered For Basic Life Insurance As An Employee: Fill & Download for Free

Funny you should ask!Gust Launch is a unique and disruptive tool designed specifically for entrepreneurs setting out to found high-growth businesses. What sets it dramatically apart from every other startup tool is that it is an integrated, software-facilitated service that a high growth founder begins using before incorporation, and continues using until after exit or dissolution. Over the entire lifecycle of the company, it handles both the one-time transactional matters (incorporation, fundraising, tax filings, etc.) and the ongoing operational matters (compliance, tracking, reporting, equity management, etc.) in a completely integrated, comprehensive, verifiable way, at a cost that is an order of magnitude lower than the less-efficient traditional approaches. This results in an order of magnitude easier process for the founder, and eventually an order of magnitude more powerful platform for the industry.Gust Launch was born out of the realization that founding and running a high-growth startup is much, much more complicated (and expensive) than any first time entrepreneur ever realizes. I found this out the hard way with my first venture-funded startup over twenty years ago, and it's something that every other serial entrepreneur will immediately confirm.As an angel investor who has funded over 100 high-growth startups, I have seen again and again the problems that arise from making tiny mistakes at the beginning…or even completely missing things that turn out to be critically important down the road when a company began talking to investors. That prompted me to write The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business.With the book as the roadmap, the next logical step was to leverage the power of Gust (the world’s largest startup platform, used by over 500,000 companies and thousands of investment groups and accelerators) to take everything in the book and turn it into an automatic, software as a service solution. The result is an online platform that delivers a "company as a service"™, designed specifically for high-growth startup teams.As an entrepreneur you can now simply go to Gust Launch and with a single click for $99/month begin with our Launch Base Package:Incorporate as a Delaware C CorpGet your EIN from the IRSFile for Foreign Qualification in your home stateHandle all post-incorporation legal setupOpen your company bank accountSet up your cap tableIssue stock to you and your founding teamand then, on an ongoing basis…Be introduced to your experienced lawyer who will provide up to an hour a month of serviceManage your full cap tableHandle all of your board actionsPrepare and track legal documents and agreements like NDAs and IP assignmentsUse up to $15,000 in Amazon Web Services creditSend up to 300,000 outbound emails from SendGridEssentially, all of the corporate, legal and administrative matters that are required if you're planning on being a serious, investor-ready company.Soon, assuming that you actually start executing on your plan, but are still pre-revenue, you’ll need to start dealing with money: spending it, receiving it, tracking it…and all the rest of that gnarly financial stuff. At that point, you add on our Pre-Revenue financial package for another $99/month, and you're all covered with:A business bank accountA basic online accrual-based accounting systemIntegration and set up with your bank accountYour own dedicated part time bookkeeperTransaction coding and standard monthly financial statementsEasy business tax preparation and filingWith your venture now firing on all cylinders and ready to begin generating revenue, one more $99/month step (technically $199 including everything in the prior package) gets you the advanced bookkeeping and financial services you need in our Revenue & Billing module, all tightly integrated with each other and with your corporate dashboard:A corporate credit cardElectronic payment processing merchant account at the best ratesD-U-N-S number and D&B credit monitoringComprehensive online accounting softwareOnline financial account integrationAdvanced bookkeeping servicesAccounts payable entry for unlimited monthly billsUnlimited journal entriesCash monitoringOptional CFO services at additional cost (invoicing, accounts receivable, tracking Cost of Goods Sold across inventory, budget to actual, etc.)Assuming that you're on a roll and need to start hiring people, we've got you covered there as well! All you need to do is add on our forthcoming Hiring module (I'm not allowed to comment on unannounced products, but don't be surprised to see something like that include):Employment agreementsStock option planEmployee and advisor option grantsHuman Resources onboarding and supportPayroll processingPayroll tax withholding409A company valuations for option grantsOptional benefits packages at additional cost (health insurance, life insurance, cafeteria plans, 401k, legal support, etc.)And because Gust is all about supporting the complete operational needs of a high growth startup, additional optional modules (that I really can’t preannounce!) will include ones like Business Basics (business planning and modeling, competitive intelligence monitoring, executive coaching, peer mentoring, online analytics dashboards, founder benefits programs), Basic Fundraising (funding valuation tools, friends & family rounds, convertible notes, investor reporting), Advanced Fundraising (preferred stock, Series Seed and Series A, investor relations, automatic milestone-based funding), and many more. There may even be some interesting partnerships with co-working spaces and other off-line partners.For several years now, Gust has been quietly building the backbone infrastructure for the entrepreneurial finance world of the 21st century, and we are delighted, at long last, to be releasing the first steps along the path!

Precise answer will depend on your housing circumstances. I will answer as if you rent housing and have a regular PAYE job (ie. Not self-employed). I also include discretionary payments like mobile phone bill and Internet access that you almost certainly won't be able to do without.income tax. Comes automatically out of your payemployee national insurance contributions. Comes automatically out of your pay. Just functions like an extra income tax.Student loan repayment, if applicable. At 17 that won't apply to you. Comes automatically out of your payrentcouncil tax and associated local charges for police and crime commissioners etc (will be itemized on the bill but easier just to think of this as part of council tax)electricity and gas bill. Typically not included in your rent, but sometimes included.Water billinternet bills and house phone line rentalmobile phone contractTV license and extra for SKY etc if that is what you wantThen we have car costs. If in London where cars are an expensive nuisance, replace this with costs of Oyster card top ups etc.car insurance. Minimum you need is 3rd party cover (ie. Only pays out if you hit someone else, in which case it only pays for their car being fixed, not yours)vehicle excise duty (road tax)whatever fuel you would use getting to workThat's basically the set of mandatory or near mandatory spending. You of course have food costs etc on top of that which you can't avoid unless you fancy starving to death.For what it is worth, I think far more time should be spent on this in school, so that our young people can better navigate life in the UK. Certainly when I was at school (admittedly over 10 years ago!) hardly any time was spent on this. Not everyone can rely on parental teaching here.

The other answers are good, but let me offer the perspective of a regular guy. Other details: I am a software developer, who worked both with startups and individually. While I am clearly in the minority now, I believe that I represent the future of the American workforce. I am most experienced with PPO health insurance, some people prefer HMO. While they are very different forms of health insurance, the difference that is relevant for our discussion is mostly in how finances are handled, and in the presence of visible paperwork.1) Employer-based insurance.Others who answered pointed out that this is an artifact of WW2. The real problem here: the bread and butter of the American economy are small companies, startups, and individual entrepreneurs. They create most new jobs, they come up with new ideas… yet they cannot afford to provide health insurance. Only larger companies can. The smaller the company is, the smaller the pool of employees, and the worse health insurance is, leading to less coverage, higher premiums, and more expensive everything.If you want to try your hand at a startup, or do something on your own, you have a choice of:a) Use the same insurance as your spouse, who should work for a company that provides family health insurance.b) Use your previous insurance: by law you can use your old insurance for 18 months after termination, paying its full cost (with no company sponsorship).c) Try to find insurance on your own. Until several years ago, it was almost impossible for different reasons.d) Brave it out with no insurance. Usually not a choice for family people. Not a good choice even for healthy young single people.Note that I don't even talk about poor people. I just assume that you can afford options b and c.(Sometimes people tell me that I am wrong, e.g., "I work for a 20 person company and they have insurance". Yes, but is it good insurance? Many small companies do provide insurance at an inflated cost with virtually no sponsorship. I used to pay $2k/mo at most small companies in the noughties, having minimal coverage. Even companies itself do not recommend it, and don't use it as a recruiting tool.)Working for startups, and as an individual entrepreneur, I had to do all of the above. I had to select big companies over small companies exclusively for their insurance. The same choice went for a contractor vs. permanent position: the latter paid less, yet came with insurance. Sometimes I quit, and did something interesting for 18 months. I went without insurance for some time.Finally, I was able to find a PPO insurance for my family for $590/mo! Great! Soon the price went up to $675/mo. Still not bad. That plan, with the start of Obamacare, was terminated, and I had to reenroll. Unfortunately prices went up significantly, and now I pay roughly twice more. Is it because of Obamacare? I don't know. Still less than the $2k/mo I used to pay 10 years ago.To sum it up: our WW2-era health insurance hinders the economy by reducing the mobility of workers, reducing opportunities --- one of the most un-American things to do. We are treating health services as a luxury perk, while it is already a basic necessity for all of society.Our workforce is getting older. If we want it to be economically active, and to bring in money instead of drawing money from a budget, we should care about their wellbeing.2) Financial opaqueness and fraud opportunities.As soon as a medical visit goes beyond routine, it is impossible to plan it financially. I never know what bills I'll be getting after a visit. I pay the doctor's copay immediately, only to be billed by 2-3 other providers for lab services, and their interpretation in some cases. I always know I'll be getting a lot of bills from people I've never heard of after a hospital visit.Example: a childbirth. It is not an emergency; typically it is known months in advance, with plenty of time to secure a preapproved hospital, preapproved obstetrician, and preapproved pediatrician. Yet, ultimately, I got a huge bill from an anesthesiologist. I could not preapprove my anesthesiologist. Of course, the anesthesiologist didn't take my insurance (in fact, they rarely take any insurance), and it was the biggest expense of the whole childbirth.Frequently, I see similar items in different bills from different providers. Upon calling them, they usually cannot explain them away, saying "it looks similar but for different things" without much details. It is rare to see a detailed itemization on a bill. Only hospitals attempt to do it. The rest typically charge for "services" without even disclosing what services they provided. Calling them to clarify typically yields the following pattern:Me: "You sent me a one-item bill for 'services'. What services were rendered to me exactly?"Them: "We bill patients. To protect your privacy we cannot access what services were provided to you."Me: "Can I talk to somebody in the know? Perhaps a supervisor?"Them: "No. They do not accept calls, but we can order a written explanation sent to you."Me: "Perfect!"After all that, I get the same bill with one line: “services.” And now I am late with my payment. :-(Sometimes I get billed many months after the fact, when I already forgot what it was, and whether was it paid or not, and how I paid, if I did. Sometimes I get strange bills, and upon calling to clarify them, I am told to disregard them. In general, American life is very organized and transparent. Not in the health care industry.Speaking of preapprovals --- theoretically, that's how I know my financial responsibility for this or that. Yet nobody estimates the whole bill. All attempts to do so result in numbers way off from the reality, sometimes as much as by an order of magnitude.In the end, people are genuinely confused with medical bills and getting lax with them. Much more lax than with any other financial obligation. Obviously, it cannot be good for the industry.Coincidentally, paying for health care services is stuck in the 20th century. I cannot even compare it with any other industry. See for yourself: many do not have a web presence, or a way to check a balance; many doctors employ part-time accountants, who are available only by phone for a couple hours a week; some do not take credit cards; many allow partial payments, but cannot bill you automatically on a monthly basis. On top of that, some can handle automatic payments (easier for both of us!), yet send threatening letters monthly ("you owe us money! pay now! you'll be sold to collectors!") only because their system do not handle payment plans, and send this stuff automatically.3) Price inequality.While no two ailments are the same, and no two people are the same, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that we price exactly the same procedure at different hospitals/doctors. Prices will be different, sometimes by an order of magnitude. In most cases, they will be huge even by the standards of other developed countries.Out-of-pocket prices will be different, too, depending on many factors. I am not going to delve into different limits built into most insurance policies. I am talking about the "insurance discount". Yes, your insurance and your provider collude openly to charge different prices for different things. So, if they bill you $10k, they may give you an "insurance discount" of $7k, so at the end you owe them $3k, which is covered by you and your insurance depending on your contract. If you don't have insurance (e.g., poor), you'll be charged $10k. In fairness, you can still negotiate, but while individual doctors may go down to the insurance levels, hospitals frequently do not, and you end up paying more. Why?Usually it is explained away as "capitalism in action". No, it is not. We are not charged differently for food, shelter, and clothes. The same should be true for all consumers, including patients. Even if your insurance provides health care providers with a steady stream of customers, the rest is an extra opportunity to provide paid services, not a chance to play predator.OTOH, there is another explanation for that: "because they can and you won't". Try to argue with a hospital, even if you have to learn their lingo to do so.4) Natural monopoly or thriving competition?Somehow, we are presented with the notion that we have a lot of choices in where to get our medical services. And that's true to a certain degree. On PPO, I can go to a different doctor (not so much on HMO) and even travel to a different city if I don't like my local choice (usually in the same state --- American insurances are state-based!). Yet in reality, it applies only for non-life-threatening situations. Imagine that a doctor found cancer, and advises you to operate immediately --- how many days are you going to spend shopping around and find the best option? Weeks? Months? Do you have nerves of steel? What about the same with broken bones? A simple high fever? Garden variety infection? Some unknown ache, which is probably nothing?In reality, there is no more competition between hospitals and doctors, than between utility providers. Yes, tap water is cheaper across a street, but would you move regularly to follow changing prices? Frequently the need for medical services cannot be predicted, yet we have to select a level of insurance, our providers, and so on.Imagine that you did decide to evaluate providers. How could you do it without being a medical professional? The best I found were websites which list a number of lawsuits against a doctor, and their education credentials. The rest was usually useless along the following lines: "this doctor has excellent bedside manners!", "her waiting room has new magazines!", "his staff is very polite". It is all nice to know, but doesn't explain how good a specialist they are.And forget about comparing financials (see #2 above). Many providers do not disclose their prices to the general public as a matter of policy, and there is no competition without comparisons and informed decisions.You probably have read other answers and learned about an artificial reduction of competition in American healthcare. If we are to continue on this path, we have to declare that healthcare providers are utilities and natural monopolies and treat them like so, including the regulation of prices in a socially-responsible manner, much like we do with other industries.5) Medication and its consumers.You cannot buy any medication without a prescription by a licensed doctor, save for Aspirin, vitamins, bandages, and similar things. I can understand a need to closely regulate narcotic-based medicine, or strong doses, which are easy to misuse. However, in reality, even trivial things require a visit to a doctor, costing us time and money.In many cases, medication should be taken for an extended period of time, even for life (e.g., hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and other systemic maladies), yet a doctor cannot prescribe a medication for more than a certain number of months. This leads to more useless trips, wasted time, and wasted money.Obviously, it is better when a trained professional supervises your health at all time. Yet it makes things rather difficult for people without insurance and of limited means.As a twist, insurers typically do not pay for over-the-counter medication, which is frequently not cheap, either.Now you are ready to understand the absurdity of medical advertisements that are targeted directly to potential patients. We are constantly bombarded with such ads on TV, in magazines, and on the internet. Yet we cannot buy the product without a prescription. More than that: I don't feel comfortable buying any strong medicine without the recommendation of a medical professional, who actually knows my conditions. Yet those ads list symptoms and instruct us to tell our doctors that we want this medicine! Apparently it works for advertisers, because the barrage of medical ads never stops.6) Basic economy.I don't want to go deep into that. I just want to mention that a lot of people are upset that many hospitals are nonprofit organizations that pay exorbitant amount of money to their executives, do not care about improving their services to us, and worry more about their bottom line and near-monopolistic status.7) Quality.I wanted to mention that, in spite of what I wrote above, and obvious errors and deficiencies in the system, American healthcare is pretty good. The hassle is mostly in clerical/bureaucratic issues, as well as financial areas.It is not difficult to find a knowledgeable doctor, who is up to date on the latest research, and can perform even complex procedures. It is not difficult to find a fully staffed, state-of-the-art hospital. I don't recall anyone complaining that a certain medication was unavailable --- I am sure it is possible, but don't know personally a single person with such problems. I don't recall a procedure being cancelled or delayed due to the lack/unavailability of a certain medicine or equipment.For me, it is astonishing to hear that, in some wealthy countries, people have to wait for months (if not years) to have an operation or a procedure, and even be refused one for some reason. I understand the concept of rationing of limited resources, and of budget concerns, yet it all doesn't sound humane to me. There is also the concept of “quality of life,” which is important in its own right.