HR question re insurance benefits

firsttogo · January 2012

Do insurance plans through your employer cost your employer $, like if you defer insurance through your employer, does it save the employer money?

Does my question make sense? LOL

Dr.Loretta · January 2012

Yes, typically the company is paying a certain % of the premium, and the employee is picking up the rest. So deferring means they don't have to pay their part of your premium.

But this assumes they went into it thinking they would pay premiums for every employee. If that makes sense.

firsttogo · January 2012

I get it! Just wondering if while negotiating employment and compensation, utilizing employer health insurance or not will make a difference to an employer, and if it could be a negotiating point. KWIM?

dusk42 · January 2012

DH's company will give you $30 per month if you opt out of the insurance plan, but I'm sure that is nowhere near how much the company pays in their share of premiums. If you get the high-deductible plan, they will put $500 a year into an HSA.

However, I also think that a company would be somewhat reluctant to base hiring or compensation (which seem more permanent) on something that could change at any time (the need for health insurance). I don't think they would make a special contract that says "You can never use our health insurance" in exchange for more money.

Yellow_Daisy · January 2012

My employer used to give the employee $200/mo if you opted out of insurance. That's gone down over the years and now we have a 100% employee participation plan which means that every employee is required to have health insurance through the company and our employer is required to pay their percentage for every employee. Small companies do these 100% employee participation plans to guarantee that they will have a certain number of employees getting benefits so that insurers will negotiate more on plan premiums. It's fine if you need insurance, but it sucks if like me, you get your insurance through your DH and are paying for a policy you don't really need.

So yes sometimes you can negotiate more pay in lieu of benefits, but it's my understanding that 100% participation plans are becoming more common so you may not be able to negotiate away benefits if your employer has a plan like this.

pandabearlover · January 2012

DH Is starting at a new job next week. If he doesn't take their insurance, they will pay him the portion they would have paid if he had it. So I would guess you can use it as a negotiating tool.

Dr.Loretta · January 2012

firsttogo:
I get it! Just wondering if while negotiating employment and compensation, utilizing employer health insurance or not will make a difference to an employer, and if it could be a negotiating point. KWIM?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It wouldn't have mattered for me

Jenny952 · January 2012

Yes, a company does save $$ if you don't use their benefits. I think the ratio is that the employee pays 30% of the costs and the employer 70%. But rates are also based on the # of people in the plan. So larger companies are able to distribute the costs more easily than smaller companies. Yes, a company does save but they also need a lot of people to enroll to keep costs generally low for everyone. KWIM?

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