Those with expensive health insurance

[LoveTrains]

Sorry I have awesome health insurance and a great job. My job pays 100% of my insurance premium and I have a $1500 deductible. But they put $1500 in an HRA for me so essentially I pay nothing.

[Deleted]

My employer pays 100% of my insurance but covers none of the cost for dependents. I pay over $400/ month for just DH and if we added kids it would be nearly $700/month. Everyone in my company is offered the same rates except for executive officers, they get everything paid 100%. I think this setup works for me but I'm one of the highest paid people in my company. It disappoints me that people who make $10/hour have to pay that much to insure their families.

[Deleted]

I pay 1/4 of my income (pre tax) in premiums. PLUS a 5k deductible.

[AAM2012]

My company is considering offering/providing a high insurance deductible plan (example: $5k ded per person $9500 per family) and it would only save us like 20% in premiums. They did a survey to see employee reactions. I informed them that I would immediately look for a job elsewhere if this was implimented.

[vmars]

DH's health ins. cost is based on his salary which I think is very fair. He pays 6.5% of the benefit cost for very good insurance. Before he got his job my job made everyone pay 1/2 of the cost of the ins. and it ended up being 16% of my salary. It really bothered me b/c there is such a huge pay discrepancy at my office and those making 10x my salary paid the same amt. as I did

[bunch]

I think h's is about as terrible as it gets (which you know). Especially since I could have had one of those $200 babies a few years ago. I think that he's paid okay, but nothing great. Having a baby takes 15% of his yearly take home pay. That's nuts.

Also, his is income based, but even in the much lower brackets, it's expensive. His next raise will be a paycut because it puts him in the next bracket.

[ijack]

I actually don't think my $2500 deductible is so bad. I only pay $50/m for the entire family. H's insurance would cost us over $1200/m and it's only 70%.

[Deleted]

I think I pay 300 a month in premiums. Maybe a bit more? I can't recall. I'm a federal employee though and while I know some people have better insurance out there, I'm happy with my insurance and my salary.

[kershnic]

At my work people who make under $40k have one set of insurance rates, $40-$80k another set, and over $80k another set. We're a social services non-profit, so that top tier is really only upper level management types. Lower income people still pay a much higher percentage of income I'm sure, but I like that there's at least some acknowledgement that people who make more can afford to pay more.

I doubt good insurance correlates much with salary level in general. I suspect it has more to do with things like which industries people work in, whether people are in unions, and what states people live in. I consider my insurance pretty decent, but I was insanely jealous when I found out that teachers in my city pay nothing. My teacher friends all try to compare their salaries... but you're not really comparing apples to apples when benefits packages make such a big difference.

I think a big part of the health care problem in this country is that people don't really understand the huge inequalities that already exist in access to health care.

[ellipses84]

Nov 27, 2012 19:05:39 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

My employer pays 100% of my insurance but covers none of the cost for dependents. I pay over $400/ month for just DH and if we added kids it would be nearly $700/month. Everyone in my company is offered the same rates except for executive officers, they get everything paid 100%. I think this setup works for me but I'm one of the highest paid people in my company. It disappoints me that people who make $10/hour have to pay that much to insure their families.

I could have written this! For me, it's the lowest cost, better HMO. I only paid $250 to have my baby and the co-pays are reasonable. The other HMO and PPO options have people paying way more OOP, but they have a little more flexibility in their service providers. I've been on other HMO plans that really sucked and were just as expensive. Cobra would cost me $1400/mo.

[bunch]

Nov 27, 2012 19:25:48 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

bnchanums I think high deductible insurance is the worst for families. For DH alone his high deductible plan works out pretty well since he has only spent like $100 in the past 6 years.

It is pretty funny though because with the new job we will make the exact same base salary but I will carry DD's insurance and also contribute more to the HSA (since I spend more), plus I will contribute to the daycare flex spending account, so I his paychecks will be at least $300 more than mine.

we alternate between the high ded plan and the "low" plan. So this year we did the one with almost zero premium and put the difference in the hsa. Next year we'll do the "low" ded plan. Of course we screwed up this year because of my ct scan, but that still wouldn't have hit the other deductible. It's such a gamble. I can't imagine being a shift worker with ongoing medical issues. You'd have to find another job, which is probably what they want anyway.

[Brie]

On the flip side, my salary sucks but my insurance is awesome. It's one of the main attractions of working where I do because lord knows people don't work here for the money.

[Roc A Bee]

I have awesome insurance, but I don't get paid much. No deductible. 100% employer paid. Nothing for dependents. $20 copay. $7 prescriptions.

[kadams767]

Well, I have a $3k deductible for DH and I, with a $10k OOP max. But my employer pays 100% of the premium for both of us and contributes $2000 to our HSA. I get paid decently.

[lys]

My question would be more along the lines of
IF you have the gold plated health insurance (little to no OOP) are you a public sector/government employee in a union? In my experience, that is where you most often receive that type of insurance as a benefit.

[Deleted]

We had insurance through DHs mid-sized Architecture firm (30ish people). It was $950/mo OOP for family premiums plus co-pays & paying 20% of everything else. The coverage out of network was horrid. We paid a ton for an ER visit for my kids ear infection on vacation. I mean like $1500 OOP for a 5 min diagnosis. My DH made $60k at the time...which is decent pay for a young Architect but its a low paying profession. He got a promotion a year or so into taking that job & now they pay 100% of the premiums. He also makes 25% more. A couple years ago he switched to Kaiser. Low options & I really don't like the system...but it's cheaper co pays & better coverage in-network. I am sure DHs firm pays lower premiums too.

[mrssandro]

I consider my HSA decent insurance for the small company I work out. I have a great job that pays decent and always gives raises every year. My $1500 deductible isn't as bad as my previous job. My husband is 100% covered by his company he works for a law firm. He only has to pay for his dependents. It is really good insurance.

[Redpoppy]

Nov 27, 2012 20:01:40 GMT -5 lys said:

My question would be more along the lines of
IF you have the gold plated health insurance (little to no OOP) are you a public sector/government employee in a union? In my experience, that is where you most often receive that type of insurance as a benefit.

The premium for our HMO family plan is over $1100 a month, but work pays 90%. It's a private company. It gets a little more expensive/less benefits to us every year but still has a heck of a long way to go to be bad. Everyone gets the same insurance, just a matter of individual versus family (there are a handful of original employees grandfathered into having a PPO, no one else can get it and they pay more). The company considers it an important benefit.

I don't think the just out of college employees realize how much a benefit the insurance is to them. Starting salary is low, but you always have access to the insurance. They luck out with all the married couples there (including DH and me), two for one on insurance.

[gwynnetx]

I'm a teacher, and I can see how our insurance plan would stink for some. For us, it's fine. DH and I are on separate plans, and we each pay $10 a month for our high deductible plan. It's a $2500 deductible and $2000 OOP. In the last two months, DH has had medical issues that had us blow through that $4500 in less than 48 hours. Luckily, we had established a medical emergency fund to cover that $4500, just in case, so we are able to pay off all the bills fully (and get a discount most of the time for doing so!). But I know that most of my co-workers do not have that kind of fund set up so having to come up with $4500 like that would be difficult.

I used to think our insurance sucked, but after this experience, I am grateful for it.

[M]

We're self employed so we have to buy our own insurance but I think it's pretty good. $151/mo (going up to $167 in January even though we never use it) with $3500 deductible for both of us.

A long time ago, we had insurance with H's previous employer. $500/mo for both of us with the same coverage...that was some BS. So we got rid of it and got our own policy.

[flatlan]

We pay $390 a month for both of us. $2000 deductible and $1000 OOP for each person. We work for the same company (family business) and pay for our own insurance because the company doesn't offer it. We do have a lot of other perks that makes it awesome to work there so I don't get too cranky about the insurance.

[Deleted]

Obama care will not help in my case as our premiums are high because of the family add ons...not my individual insurance (the employee). My employer pays 85% of my premiums, which puts it within the ACA limits. The pay zero for family which I completely understand but it's why it's so expensive. Our rates will increase next year because of the new laws

[Deleted]

Your insurance is way better than mine. $4k deductible per person, $16k max out of pocket per person, $500 co-pay for emergency room visits, I've paid $100 for prescriptions, etc. It sucks. I make good money, but not enough that spending $16k on medical bills in one year wouldn't hurt.

[Deleted]

I will add that my insurance is awesome in other ways, like no lifetime max...and great coverage for hs prosthetics which many carriers suck at.

Cheap =\= good

[Deleted]

Eh, not really, we both just work(ed) for insurance companies. We're lucky we don't use it.

ETA: my husbands last job was in the same industry as what you do and his insurance was even worse than it is now. At least it's consistent :/

[mrssavy42112]

Crappy insurance & crappy job.

[arch01]

DH and I are both gov't employees (he's state, I'm local).

I pay $21/week, my OOP max is $2800 this year. Deductible is $900. That is for just me.
DH doesn't pay anything, he's on a 70/30 plan. I want to say his OOP max is around $2k, but I'm not sure. That's for just him.
DS is on a private plan through BCBS. We pay $92/mo for him, he's on a high deductible plan-OOP max is $5k.

To add DS to either my plan or DH's would be about 2.5 times what we're paying now for him to be on his own plan. It's absurd.

[marissa]

My husband pays 1/2 of his insurance at almost $500 a week. We have $1500 per person deductible up to 3k per family, 3k oop per person/6k maximum oop per year. We have hit it 5 years in a row. This year we hit my deductible and maximum oop.


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[GailGoldie]

in the end I pay less money for my HSA (that has a $3200 deduct).... my weekly contributions to my health insurance are less than if i had the PPO... and my company puts in about 2K. It FEELs more expensive in the first few months of each year b/c we have never yet built up the HSA b/c we have hit our deduct ever year (sick kids)... but i know when the math is done- we save.

[zacksbride]

we have a $2500 OOP max per person, $7500 per family, RXs can be pricey at times. But, my job pays for 100% of my premium, DH's job covers 100% of his and DSs premiums. I have a high paying job and DH works for the same hospital as me as a resident.