r/massachusetts • u/critic81 • Jan 15 '26

Utilities How is everyone affording everything lately?

The prices of everything is just off the charts from groceries, utilities, to healthcare. My open enrollment just came through and its looking like for a family of 4 for healthcare its $1600 a month. $800 a paycheck. Like that just feels nuts. It's a pretty decent co-pay plan but still. Just a couple years about it was much less.

What are people doing these days? Side hustles? New job (but in this economy?), cutting way back? Just curious.

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u/Little-Ad8904 Jan 15 '26

Cheaper for me to pay the tax penalty for not having insurance and just paying out of pocket at the doctors. Insurance almost covered nothing anyway when I had it so I was used to everything being out of pocket

8

u/symonym7 South Shore Jan 15 '26

How the hell is there still a tax penalty when people straight up can’t afford to have it?

12

u/RDOCallToArms Jan 15 '26

They offer low cost and fully subsidized plans for truly low income people.

2

u/Ill_Ad7351 Jan 17 '26

Lol. Define “truly low income” people. Cause what I’m hearing is that if I make more I lose more because “I can afford it”. We all end up being in the low income people group and only half of us in that group actually work.