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My fiance and I recently got engaged, we'll be married in April. Contrary to the opinions of many people on this board, we have decided to keep our finances separate, until we buy a house, which will be in both our names, but we will maintain separate bank accounts. We are both happy with this arrangement, so I'm not going to get into explaining our choice.
I have health insurance through my employer. Next year, I will pay $45/month premium (deducted from my check). It's a qualified high deductible plan, and my employer contributes $80/month to an HSA, and I contribute a small amount monthly to bring it to an even $1000/year contribution. Single deductible is $3000/year. I'm 30 years old, no health problems, and have had the HSA 1 year now and never tapped into it.
I contribute ~$500 a year to a FSA to cover an eye exam, contacts, dental cleanings, and birth control.
My husband-to-be does not have health insurance offered by his employer (he is offered no benefits), so he will have to buy private health insurance next year, as required by law. He's in the process of quitting smoking (no cigarettes for 2 weeks now! Yay!), but I think it has to be 6 months before he's considered a non-smoker for health insurance purposes.
He has no regular medical/dental/vision expenses; we would be insuring against serious illness or injury.
I don't think adding him to my insurance is the least expensive option, as that would be an additional $500/month.
Last year I grossed $39k/year, about $4000 of which was in quarterly bonuses that I'm not *guaranteed* to get. I contribute these to savings and do not count them towards my monthly budget. Of my regular $35k income, I take home approximately $1875 a month, after taxes and all deductions.
My fiance grosses approx $23k/year, but I'm not 100% sure what that works out to after taxes.
Because of the lovely changes to our healthcare system, MY income will be considered towards determining his health insurance premiums, will it not? 9.5% of 23k is $182.08 a month. This is what would be considered "affordable" for a single person with his income.
But when we marry...9.5% of 62k is $490.83 a month. I do not have an extra 300 a month to contribute towards his health insurance premium costs - if I did that, I would have nothing (or very little) each month to put toward savings! That is 16% of my by-weekly take-home pay. Why should being married suddenly make him more than double of an expense to the health insurance companies??
What kind of options do we have to keep his health insurance costs down?
I have health insurance through my employer. Next year, I will pay $45/month premium (deducted from my check). It's a qualified high deductible plan, and my employer contributes $80/month to an HSA, and I contribute a small amount monthly to bring it to an even $1000/year contribution. Single deductible is $3000/year. I'm 30 years old, no health problems, and have had the HSA 1 year now and never tapped into it.
I contribute ~$500 a year to a FSA to cover an eye exam, contacts, dental cleanings, and birth control.
My husband-to-be does not have health insurance offered by his employer (he is offered no benefits), so he will have to buy private health insurance next year, as required by law. He's in the process of quitting smoking (no cigarettes for 2 weeks now! Yay!), but I think it has to be 6 months before he's considered a non-smoker for health insurance purposes.
He has no regular medical/dental/vision expenses; we would be insuring against serious illness or injury.
I don't think adding him to my insurance is the least expensive option, as that would be an additional $500/month.
Last year I grossed $39k/year, about $4000 of which was in quarterly bonuses that I'm not *guaranteed* to get. I contribute these to savings and do not count them towards my monthly budget. Of my regular $35k income, I take home approximately $1875 a month, after taxes and all deductions.
My fiance grosses approx $23k/year, but I'm not 100% sure what that works out to after taxes.
Because of the lovely changes to our healthcare system, MY income will be considered towards determining his health insurance premiums, will it not? 9.5% of 23k is $182.08 a month. This is what would be considered "affordable" for a single person with his income.
But when we marry...9.5% of 62k is $490.83 a month. I do not have an extra 300 a month to contribute towards his health insurance premium costs - if I did that, I would have nothing (or very little) each month to put toward savings! That is 16% of my by-weekly take-home pay. Why should being married suddenly make him more than double of an expense to the health insurance companies??
What kind of options do we have to keep his health insurance costs down?
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