The Indicator from Planet Money · Friday, August 7, 2026
Richard Leonard, a product manager with 14 years at his company, is delaying his entrepreneurial aspirations due to the critical need for employer-sponsored health insurance. Despite having savings and business ideas, he fears the financial struggle of covering healthcare costs for himself and his family if he leaves his current job.
“If you're not enjoying what you're doing or really not passionate about it, you should be able to quit and start something else, but that's that's just not realistic.”
“No, I've been mal-figh thinking savings to kind of make it worthwhile for maybe six, seven months to try something and and push out. Uh, but after that, then it would be a struggle. You know, how do you pay for the health insurance side of things?”
“Honestly, I would say I could take a reduction in salary as long as there's, uh, you know, health insurance covered that's, uh, at least similar, you know, that's, obviously at this point I feel that that would probably be something more important to me.”