Healthcare premuims at work

[annibe11e]

I'm having sticker shock over the employee cost for healthcare at my job.

We have two options for medical:

A high deductible plan with 100% coverage for preventive care, 80% after deductible for everything else. It's $56.72 bi-weekly for an individual.

The other is a co-payment plan with 100% coverage for preventive care, $30 co-pay for illness/injury, $10, 35, 60 co-pays for prescriptions, and 80% after deductible for everything else. It's $110.01 bi-weekly for an individual.

Everyone I know pays less, so I thought I'd ask the interwebs to get a bigger cross section.

What do you pay?

[Petunia 100]

I am fortunate that my employer pays 100% of my premium.

I think that the plans you are being offered have reasonable costs. I do understand that you are living on a tight budget and would have trouble making room for this expense. Nonetheless, it's pretty important to have medical insurance.

[Baby_nurse]

That doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. At my job, I pay nearly $300 biweekly. My DH's last job was even more for our family. My daughter pays $90 biweekly for just herself.

[NetSkyBlue]

We pay $15 biweekly for our high deductible plan. Employer also contributes 1k/yr to HSA. The family plan is expensive (but I don't have a family). I've only been to the Dr. 3x in the 7 years I've worked here, and this plan went into effect in Jan. I've never used it.

[annibe11e]

That doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. At my job, I pay nearly $300 biweekly. My DH's last job was even more for our family. My daughter pays $90 biweekly for just herself.

Is that individual or family?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Funny you should bring this up I just was looking at how much our premiums since 2005 have gone up. This is for a very posh PPO plan, I don't ask for referrals, includes prescriptions, etc.

2005 couple premium $40/biweekly
2006 couple $42/biweekly
2007 couple $50/biweekly
2008 couple $55/biweekly
2009 couple $55/biweekly
2010 family $80/biweekly
2011 family $85/biweekly
2012 family $90/biweekly
2013 family $100/biweekly

I was shocked we are not at $2600/year, but we have a PPO, no deductible, no limits, but co-pays. I saw MMM blog his family is paying $239/month for a HDHP of $10k/year and with no maternity rider.

Personally we can't do any individual plans with our ages and still having kids. Maternity riders are prohibitive not to mention insuring a woman between 25-45 is just ridiculous.

I just calculated our dental as well family plan is $16/biweekly. Realize that it doesn't cover much but whatever.

[Baby_nurse]

Is that individual or family?

Mine is family. My daughter's is individual.

[MonkeyMama]

$900/month for family. Does that make you feel better?

{My spouse had a $500k+ surgery a couple of years back, as well as ongoing medical procedures, so heck yeah it is worth having insurance, even at this cost. If we never used our insurance I might be a little more pissy about it}.

[boefixepa]

We are a family plan $152 a month, 2K deductible with company paying the first 1K, then 80/20.

After we are done having kids we will go with the "bad" insurance because it is so cheep and we will save up for the 10K max out of pocket per year. Granted I will have to pay for 'sick' visits because they will fall under the deductible (4K all employee paid!) , but it costs $38 a month! By saving that $110 a month I can handle creating that health account for emergencies. If we have a 10K year the max out of pocket (is a 60/40 plan...ouch) I can always switch back the next year.

[cardtrick]

HMO plan with amazing coverage for $20 biweekly. Switching to high deductible next year for $10 biweekly and the company puts in $500 into HSA.

[scfr]

$191 biweekly for 2 adults. 80/70 PPO. Deductible is $600 in-network and out-of-pocket max is $2600 (both are higher out-of-network).

[riverwed070707]

My company is pretty generous I think, even though costs have gone up quite a bit since I started 6 years ago. Our cost is $29.57 bi-monthly for individual and $110.62 bi-monthly for family. Its a high deductible plan with a $4500 deductible and employer contributes $900/year to the account. Coverages after deductible is 80/20 (this is where the biggest cost increase has occurred -- used to be 90/10).

The thing is, even if your employer doesn't offer a great option, its still likely much cheaper than you could go out and get on your own. I'd really think twice before you pass on it.

[TBH]

I pay around $300 a month for individual through my part time employer, for health, prescription, and dental. It's an HMO with very low deductibles ($5 even for specialists.)

We also pay around $300 a month for my spouse and child on his workplace plan. They have higher deductibles ($25 for primary, $40+ for specialists.)

It's cheaper for us to be on separate plans because my spouse's workplace plan would have much higher premiums for me, and also because I have ongoing health issues so the higher co-pays would really add up.

[witchkizzle]

Right now for my wife and I it is $160 per month for the premium on my employer provided high deductible plan. Our deductible is $5,000 per person but we are 100% covered after that. My employer contributes $3,600 into our HSA every year to offset that deductible.

My wife is pregnant and delivers later this year. We pay the negotiated Blue Cross rates for all care. 2 years on plan x 3,600 per year employer contribution = 7,200. Deductible for delivery = 5,000. 2 years of $160 premiums = $3,840. 7,200-5,000-3,840=1,640. So in 2 years our total cost for premiums, deductible and out of pocket healthcare expense even with having a baby is $1,640 or about a $68/month expense.