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Working Moms
Stella2008
member
Health Insurance costs--what do you pay?
Stella2008
member
in Working Moms
I'm sorry if this is kind of a personal and random question, but I am trying to get my head around what other people pay for health insurance. My DH has a job offer for a new company, but the health insurance costs are much higher than we pay now. I can't tell if we just have a great deal, or if this other company is just really expensive.
Currently, for a PPO, family coverage, with almost everything covered at 100% (office visits are at 95% and deductible is $500pp) we pay $205 per month. The new company is a PPO with wellness covered at 100%, everything else is covered at 80%, with the deductible at $1500 and the monthly cost is $550 for family coverage.
The salary offer is a good increase for him over what he makes now, but after all of the additional medical costs we might be about even. What do you think--is our coverage just really cheap, or is this other company just really high?
Will baby #3 be another girl?
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Re: Health Insurance costs--what do you pay?
The plan itself seems pretty standard, but the monthly cost seems pretty high IMO. We pay about $200 less a month for that same coverage. Your plan now is really good.
Assuming that your DH would get more than a $250 a month raise, you should go for it. If you're worried about unexpected medical bills, just throw some money in a flex spending account, which will help you save about 25% of the cost of medical bills since it comes out of pre-tax dollars. That's what we do every year.
Good luck!
I pay about $180 out of every paycheck, for me, DH, and DD, for full Kaiser medical, dental, and vision. It's good coverage, cheap copays, no deductible.
DH's old insurance was $200 per paycheck just for me and him, and that was a really crappy plan, high deductible, medical only.
Can you compare your work plan and see the difference for cost?
it completely depends on the deal the company received from the insurance carrier ... and the % of the premium the company is paying.
if I worked full time, ours would be free with great coverage. but that's b/c of union and another but, it's an unstable hospital (and don't think hospitals cannot close, we've had 2 close here just this summer, one in manhattan, one in the bronx.... others the previous summer... plus see below), I work part time and am on dh's insurance (for me to add family as a parttime staffer, it would be $275 every 2 wks). dh is employed by a small liberal arts college, they absorbed the cost of a recent hike. we pay a little over $400/mo for family health, rx, and dental. all pretty good darn plans.
I had a similar plan at a job in a hospital in another area. I paid, $30 every 2 wks for individual, when dd was born, it was $100 every 2 wks for the family plan (flat rate).... but when I went on cobra after a move... it was $950/mo to keep my family plan until the one with dh's , then, new job kicked in. That was 4 years ago... costs have gone up. our contract is in limbo and those with insurance through the hospital were given notice that it would go to cobra in sept. they have so many days to decide if they'll pay. it was something like $500 individual. then almost $250 for each additional family member... this was per month.
It doesn''t sound outrageous to me. I work for a 90,000+ employee company. The PPO I chose has a $300 deductible for family, $25 co-pays for office visits, and no co-insurance (meaning you don't pay a % of services). I pay $217 per pay period. Dental and vision are not included but RX benefit is.
My twins are 5! My baby is 3!
DS#2 - Allergic to Cashew, Pistachio, Kiwi
DS#3 - Allergic to Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts and Sesame
Until this year we were paying $205 a week (yes a week even with the company paying a percentage) for family PPO coverage through DH's company. Everything was covered with $20 co-pays, no deductible.
As of December 1st of last year my company finally switched to an insurance company that was accepted by mine and the boys drs so I switched to that. I now pay $15/weel for the three of us with $40 co-pays for me and $0 co-pays for the boys, no deductible. Generic prescriptions are free.
DH stayed on his company plan due to his one of his kidney specialists not being covered by mine and he pays $20/week with a $25 co-pay, no deductible. He pays a small co-pay on his prescriptions.
We also started contributing $35/week to DH's medical flex. We can get reimbursed for the co-pays, 20% of dental, the % of eye care, and other over the counter medicines that we pay for out of pocket. We are actually using it as kind of a Christmas savings plan - I will submit for a reimbursement check in early November and use the money for Christmas. (Our neighbor who happens to be the head of HR at DH's company and a relative of DH's recommended it.)
So in total we are paying $70/week compared to $205.
Ditto to PP who said to check the whole package. We do pay a lot for the benefits, but the company still matches 401K up to 6%, my DH gets tons of vacation time, they pay life insurance for the whole family, they're still giving us a car allowence, and he has an HSA. A lot of companies around here aren't offering that much anymore and still providing health insurance. Plus, what's the commute difference? What will he save, if anything, in gas, car repairs, lunches, work clothes, ect.?
We pay $249 per paycheck for medical/dental/vision benefits through my DH. We have a family dec. of $250, services are covered at 100% after that is met, we have 10% of prescriptions, and an office co pay of $15.
Good luck!!
I would LOVE that insurance.
DH works for a large retailer and we pay about $460/month for me, DH and LO. This is just for medical. It has a $800 deductible per person ($2400 per family), then covers 70% and we'd owe 30% until we hit the OOP max of $4k per person, then they cover 100%.
Co pays are $25 healthy/$35 sick & specialists. All procedures/surgeries/ER visits go under the deductible and the 70/30.
Rx/vision/dental plan is about $100 extra per month for me and DH.
No matching 401k for us either
But I agree, check the WHOLE package. Sometimes you'll get better PTO or 401k matches or something.
Thanks for the replies everyone. The rest of the benefits are pretty similar--401k match is the 1% higher but has a 5 year vesting schedule, and he was able to negotiate the same PTO package as he currently gets. My companies insurance is not good (plan is really restrictive with dr.'s and hosptials, and almost as expensive as this new plan with lesser co-insurance). Commute is exactly the same, although with this new company he would not have the subsidized parking that he gets now (and we both work in downtown chicago where parking the average parking spot near our offices is at least $200 per month).
We talked alot about it last night and I think he has decided to stay where he is at for now. Although he does not LOVE his job (work is boring, he makes a great salary, has a really good work life balance, no travel, and pretty good job security (and from the sound of it, decent benefits). The new company would probably be more exciting work, but would involve some travel and with us planning to TTC early next year, travel would not be ideal.
At this point, I think we both feel that work life balance and flexibility for family is the most important thing.
Will baby #3 be another girl?
]
vegan mama, military wife