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Comment by jvanderbot | Hacker News Reader

I'm a fairly well to do/employable person, and so is my wife. Together, we should be all kinds of financially stable.

But the two largest costs to our finances are ridiculously outsized: Child Care and Health Care. We pay more for our children and health insurance / care, than our house + cars (+student loans) combined.

These seem like two areas where intervention is not only possible but likely to help just about everyone. And, if those are solved, I wonder if this "fertility crisis" I keep hearing about goes away too.

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> But the two largest costs to our finances are ridiculously outsized: Child Care and Health Care.

I thought the same thing. We pay 5.5k for two kids per month.

But then I looked at the regulations on professional child care. You need one certified worker and 250 sq.ft. of indoor space (in an expensive city) per 4 kids. After professional insurance, healthcare and other ancillary wage costs, there's really not that much left for the salary of that worker.

So I guess I understand the price of childcare. I support it, even. I don't want my kids to be looked after by a stressed out carer on minimum wage looking after 10 kids at once.

If we want to lower the cost of childcare, the only option would be billions in subsidies. Might make a dent in the fertility crisis.

>We pay 5.5k for two kids per month

You can pay a fraction of that if you're ok with you paying cash and then learning Spanish. It won't have any of the administrative/compliance bloat either, if you catch my drift.

>the only option would be billions in subsidies.

There's a huge "not grey market" tax for everything from childcare to construction

I kind of like the compliance. It comes with infant first aid courses and theory in child education, psychology and nutrition. Meals are prepared from scratch. I'm sure it's much more than strictly necessary, but that's much better than to little compliance.

I also really like that the pros give the strict guarantee of 0 minutes of screen time - both for the kids and the ladies who watch them. I'm going full Luddite for the kids, having a nanny backdooring that effort seems like a bad idea...

There's a "middle class dip" where one spouse working barely makes enough to cover the increased costs from child care and other incidentals (like eating out more often).

The poor either have a non-working spouse or get subsidized child care, and the rich don't know what a banana costs.

Many of my parent friends have gone through the debate about having the lesser-earning parent quit work for a few years to care for children or to pay for daycare.

In the long run remaining employed generally comes out ahead due to the continued career growth and employment.

The one friend who quit their job now regrets a little because the expensive early childcare years were over quickly and now they’re trying to get back into the workforce in a rough economy with a resume gap.

The resume gap issue is why many never return (which may be a better life overall, hard to say, life isn't only financial decisions).

One option is to keep working at reduced hours/ad hoc, if such is available.

Curious where you live that healthcare is more than housing?

If they are paying out of pocket for health insurance, it’s definitely possible.

Childcare + Healthcare is more than housing.

Healthcare alone would be more than the house we had before this one.

Ah the combo I see. So if someone is also renting or paying a mortgage they’re toast.

In the US if you don't own your home free and clear this is likely the case.

Health insurance premiums are $500 to $2,000 per person per month in the US (price goes up with age). Annual out of pocket maximums are usually $5k to $15k (varies based on individual or family plan). Annual deductibles are usually $2k or may even just match the annual out of pocket maximumum.

A family of four can easily be spending $30k in premiums plus a couple thousand in out of pocket expenses per year.

This info can be found by searching reports from KFF, or checking prices on healthcare.gov

And while many people’s employers pay for a large portion of the premium, the cost still exists, they just don’t receive it in their bank account first before paying it to the insurer.

My childcare + healthcare is nearly 3x my house payment.

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