It's so upsetting because I tried to offer my favourite freelancer a full time job – offered him double his current salary – but he couldn't accept because he relies heavily on his health insurance for a pre-existing condition and as a self-employed person with only a few employees who lives in a different country – the kinds of health insurance I can offer him are not good enough (They won't sell the really good employer-paid insurance programs to people with less than 10 employees – because the whole point is that they make money off dozens of low-cost employees to “subsidize” the high cost employees with health conditions. Sigh.)
So as a result he's stuck working for large corporations that don't value him, and I'm never really able to compete with them for employees even if I'm willing to pay more.
Similarly, it took me a long time to be willing to start my own business because I'd lose my extended health benefits. Luckily in Canada I still have medical insurance – but the lack of meds, dental, therapy, etc. is still a pretty big dent. I can buy small business supplemental insurance but the fees are extremely high and you barely get anything so it's honestly better for me to just pay out of pocket.
But it sucks because I never feel like I can ethically employ anyone full time when I can't offer remotely decent health insurance 🙁