Health Care Plan Worker Contributions

[HuskyCaucasian]

I had a post similar to this a while back, but I have a different question now. I just found out that if I want to add my family (wife and two kids) to my insurance plan, it would cost me anywhere between $832 and $992 a MONTH. My employer pays $1330-1584 a month in addition to what i would be paying. So, for a family plan, our insurance company charges us $2162-2576 a month. That seems completely insane! We are all currently on my wife's plan and only had to pay an extra $200 a month to add myself and our kids (I dont know how much her employer contributes)

 

There are smarter people here an I. Is my employer insurance over priced? This just seems crazy that our two plans are so different. Oh, and my wifes plan is head and shoulders better than mine.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Athomeboy_2000

[Texsox]

Mine would cost about that. Adding just my kids costs me $400 per month. We are a medium sized school district with the best salaries in a four county area. This is one area we lag ever so slightly behind other districts.

[EvilMonkey]

When I was at Office Max 6 months ago, the policy available was about $600 a month for myself, wife and 2 kids. it was an OK plan, not a great one, but not terrible either. I have no idea what, if any, Omax contributed.

[lostfan]

My wife's is about what yours is AHB, it sucks. Mine is like $390 a month (family) or somewhere in that range last I looked. I don't know what the employer contributes. Probably a lot.

[mr_genius]

Health insurance does seem like a total ripoff. But I'm an idiot, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about but anyways....

 

1) I have no idea what my health insurance even covers. There could be a clause in my coverage that, in lawyer speak, says I explicitly agree to never file a cliam. I don't understand any of the BS in that policy.

 

2) If I actually get seriously ill would they pay? I've worked with the insurance industry enough to know that they would do everything in their power to avoid payment. The only person I know that actually got really sick and had health insurance got screwed. They basically found a loop hole in her coverage and told her to f*** off.

 

3) From, let's say 22- 40 years of age, if you don't seriously sick you will have saved a s*** LOAD of loot if you had all that health insurance premium. You could save it away for when you get old and do need it. I could easily amass $200k.

 

4) Once you have your mass amount of money saved, you can get care wherever you want. You don't have to pay super high US health care costs if you don't want. More options, go to Germany or something for major stuff.

 

[Balta1701]

Health insurance does seem like a total ripoff. But I'm an idiot, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about but anyways....

 

1) I have no idea what my health insurance even covers. There could be a clause in my coverage that, in lawyer speak, says I explicitly agree to never file a cliam. I don't understand any of the BS in that policy.

 

2) If I actually get seriously ill would they pay? I've worked with the insurance industry enough to know that they would do everything in their power to avoid payment. The only person I know that actually got really sick and had health insurance got screwed. They basically found a loop hole in her coverage and told her to f*** off.

 

3) From, let's say 22- 40 years of age, if you don't seriously sick you will have saved a s*** LOAD of loot if you had all that health insurance premium. You could save it away for when you get old and do need it. I could easily amass $200k.

 

4) Once you have your mass amount of money saved, you can get care wherever you want. You don't have to pay super high US health care costs if you don't want. More options, go to Germany or something for major stuff.

The amazing thing is...items 1, 2, and 3 were the essence of the affordable care act.

[Soxy]

Wow, I didn't realize what a good deal I've got.

 

As a singe gal, I pay $35 a month for health care and an additional $17 a month for emergency dental (I have extreme phobias about my teeth). Families on my plan push you up to $90 a month.

 

I love working for the state!

[EvilMonkey]

Health insurance does seem like a total ripoff. But I'm an idiot, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about but anyways....

 

1) I have no idea what my health insurance even covers. There could be a clause in my coverage that, in lawyer speak, says I explicitly agree to never file a cliam. I don't understand any of the BS in that policy.

 

2) If I actually get seriously ill would they pay? I've worked with the insurance industry enough to know that they would do everything in their power to avoid payment. The only person I know that actually got really sick and had health insurance got screwed. They basically found a loop hole in her coverage and told her to f*** off.

 

3) From, let's say 22- 40 years of age, if you don't seriously sick you will have saved a s*** LOAD of loot if you had all that health insurance premium. You could save it away for when you get old and do need it. I could easily amass $200k.

 

4) Once you have your mass amount of money saved, you can get care wherever you want. You don't have to pay super high US health care costs if you don't want. More options, go to Germany or something for major stuff.

i had a boss several years back that developed a staph infection and almost died about 6 or 7 times over a 3 month period. He ended up paying about $15k out of pocket, but his insurance covered the remaining 500k. We used ours to have surgery on my sons shoulder, cost us $1100, insurance paid the remaining 14k. I had a vascectomy, paid $50 (and yes, went to a hospital, not a back alley!) insurance covered the rest. Wife had appendix removed, no cost to us.

 

As for #3, only way you would actually SAVE that s***load for later would be if you did a MSA. problem is, most people that do without, use that scratch to go on vacation, but a new car, etc, then get screwed when they really do need it. but Dems have been trying to get rid of MSA's for a while now.

[mr_genius]

i had a boss several years back that developed a staph infection and almost died about 6 or 7 times over a 3 month period. He ended up paying about $15k out of pocket, but his insurance covered the remaining 500k. We used ours to have surgery on my sons shoulder, cost us $1100, insurance paid the remaining 14k. I had a vascectomy, paid $50 (and yes, went to a hospital, not a back alley!) insurance covered the rest. Wife had appendix removed, no cost to us.

 

good to know that a lot of companies are paying out. i'm sure it's a big reason for the high premiums. not sure what the average ratios of premium/loss would be.

 

As for #3, only way you would actually SAVE that s***load for later would be if you did a MSA. problem is, most people that do without, use that scratch to go on vacation, but a new car, etc, then get screwed when they really do need it. but Dems have been trying to get rid of MSA's for a while now.

 

saving your own money for something, tax free, drives the Democrats insane.

[Balta1701]

saving your own money for something, tax free, drives the Democrats insane.

Because then 95% of that money that was saved gets spent on new houses bank fees, the people turn 60-65 and discover they need a surgery that costs 100x more than they have to spend on it, and either they wind up suffering in poverty or they wind up with their hands out to the government.

 

If you think I'm exaggerating here, I'm not and the evidence is quite clear; prior to Social Security and Medicare, the Elderly had by far the highest poverty rates in the country (>25% in the 60's to 13% in the early 90's).

 

What drives us insane is people who want the government off their back except for all the things that benefit them. Everything else is clearly unimportant except my Medicare.

[Chisoxfn]

Wow, I didn't realize what a good deal I've got.

 

As a singe gal, I pay $35 a month for health care and an additional $17 a month for emergency dental (I have extreme phobias about my teeth). Families on my plan push you up to $90 a month.

 

I love working for the state!

I pay $70 a month for myself. To add my wife (we are currently on desperate plans as it was a little cheaper since her employer has a nice program too), it would be $150 per month and for my wife and kids (as many kids as I wanted), it would cost $220 per month. The insurance plan I have is supposed to be a pretty darn good one (when I did my comparisons the coverage was fantastic) and is considered a "Cadillac" plan.

 

I will do everything in my power to always make sure I have insurance. The bill that you pay if you have no coverage are absolutely ridiculous. One little injury could set you back a huge amount. Or just a bad virus, etc.

[EvilMonkey]

Because then 95% of that money that was saved gets spent on new houses bank fees, the people turn 60-65 and discover they need a surgery that costs 100x more than they have to spend on it, and either they wind up suffering in poverty or they wind up with their hands out to the government.

 

If you think I'm exaggerating here, I'm not and the evidence is quite clear; prior to Social Security and Medicare, the Elderly had by far the highest poverty rates in the country (>25% in the 60's to 13% in the early 90's).

 

What drives us insane is people who want the government off their back except for all the things that benefit them. Everything else is clearly unimportant except my Medicare.

But we do have social security and medicare now. So why would a MSA be a bad thing? If people withdraw for non-medical reasons, the almighty government makes sure to get its huge slice right off the top, not bank fees.

[Balta1701]

But we do have social security and medicare now. So why would a MSA be a bad thing? If people withdraw for non-medical reasons, the almighty government makes sure to get its huge slice right off the top, not bank fees.

Because every rate-payer that withdraws for non-medical reasons pushes the rates higher for everyone still in the insurance pool.

 

And every time they wind up hitting their plan limits...they're on the taxpayer.