Employer paid health/life insurance?

[Ed62]

Do you get it? Is it any good if you do? When I worked in a steel mill, we had excellent health insurance, fully paid by the company. We also got a very minimal life insurance policy. But I think those days are just about over since it seems everybody is reducing insurance benefits or cutting them out completely.

Ed

[MilDoc]

Nope. And it will be going away. It now costs GM more per car for health ins. than steel.

[TheRic]

We pay $100 for single person, some other prices /levels here, little over $700 for family per month. It's not worth the paper it's printed on. We go thru Anthem. Heard from a friend that works at Anthem, we have the worst insurance coverage there.

[gad5264]

$580.00 per month for myself and two daughters with a $25.00 co-pay for office visits and $5.00 perscriptions. Our coverage is thru United Healthcare.

[Alex Franke]

Employee only: No cost
Employee & children: $135-242/month (three tiers)
Employee & spouse: $349-507/month (three tiers)
Employee & family: $371-535/month (three tiers)

It's not a stellar policy.

We took our newborn in for a 2-week well baby visit at the birth center where she was born (not a hospital), and they told us that she wasn't covered at the birth center because she didn't have maternity benefits. (Why on Earth would I buy maternity benefits for my 2 week old daughter???) We were able to straighten it out finally, but it was a bit of a hassle....

[JSCOOK]

HEALTH INSURANCE:
Here in Ontario, Canada everyone that is a resident has pretty much complete Health Insurance coverage automatically by the Provincal Government (our Provinces are similar to your States) under O.H.I.P. but there have been some recent changes ... things like dental and drug are typically covered for about 85%-95% of the cost by the employer's benefit plans (again basically the norm for most employee's in Ontario).

LIFE INSURANCE:
Actual life insurance varies widely from employer to employer here ... my Employer's Insurance (under our benefits plan) pays IIRC 1 years salary in the event of my death ... I also have additional plans for about $250K which I pay something like $45/month, which is to ensure $$$ is there for my kids needs if I'm not around to bring in an income and my wife has to raise them (my wife has something similar).

[jackellis]

My employer pays for me and my wife pays about $170/month for hers (retired from IBM). It includes dental and medical. I typically end up paying about half the cost of an office visit or procedure.

During my last stint of self-employment, I paid Blue Cross about $150 per month (age 51) for medical only with a 2400 annual deductible.

The way I see it, we'vre all become addicted to a health care subsidy, which describes most employer-paid health plans. If it was health insurance, we'd pay for most routine visits and drugs ourselves up to a fairly high limit of, say, $2400 per person per year.

There are lots of reasons why health care has gotten so expensive IMHO - medical malpractice insurance, ageing population that doesn't eat well or exercise properly, and little incentive for most consumers to shop around.

[Kristofor]

Medical insurance at the company I work for is a freebie (less than the a la carte benefit credit amount) for a single person, but costs some $$ as soon as you add the 2nd or higher.

I do agree that employee paid insurance is not going to be around much longer... As an optimist I'd like to think that there will be improved efficiency, better care, lower cost, and better services for folks getting the short end of the stick.

Unfortunately I suspect it would work more like many of the other socialized medicine countries, just much more expensive here. That's due to our love of litigation and unwillingness to accept long waits for services. The proposed Canadian targets for improving wait times on routine procedures just wouldn't fly. Telling our seniors that they may need to wait for routine treatment 4 months for Cataracts, 9 months for joint replacement, 6 months for heart bypass (48hrs for emergency), a month for an x-ray (24 hrs for emergency) would be sure to cause an uproar.

I wish I had a good solution

[Slik Geek]

One benefit of medical insurance that is becoming more valuable is the "discounted" care agreements it provides.

I work for a small company. We only have to pay 1% of the health insurance premium for our particular coverage (individual, +1, or family). The company pays the rest!

The family medical insurance premium is over $15,000 per year (ouch), so I pay about $150 a year of that... plus my salary is a bit below peers in the industry. (The low cost to employees for our medical insurance helps compensate for the diminished salary).

No dental insurance. A modest vision insurance.

Last year, our deductible was $2,250 for individuals, $4,500 for families. (It went up this year, I don't know what it is now).

Our company reimburses a good portion of that (via a Health Reimbursement Account), dropping the effective deductible to $500 for individuals, $1,500 for families (last year). Prescriptions are discounted somewhat through the insurance provider's contracts, and are only covered at 80% when insurance kicks in (until one hits the maximum out of pocket limits of $3,000 for individuals, $5,500 for families, last year's numbers).

We have a Flexible Savings Account (cafeteria plan) that allows us to have pre-tax income deducted from our pay to cover virtually any out-of-pocket medical expenses. The catch is that you have to designate how much will be deducted before the beginning of the year, and if you don't have qualifying expenses that consume the account that year, you forfeit any surplus.

[scorrpio]

Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO here, fully paid by employer. Includes medical, dental, vision. Covers employee, spouse(or any life partner who lived with you over 2 years), kids, not sure about the dog. Office visit co-pay $20, prescriptions up to $20 co-pay. Hospitalization $200 co-pay regardless of how long you stay. (I.E when my wife gave birth and stayed in hospital 3 days we paid $200 total) No need for referrals needed, can go to a specialist directly. In-network doctors covered fully, out-of-network have to pay and submit a claim, usually get an almost complete reimburse.

Included free life insurance is measly ($50k). I have a larger life policy I pay for myself.

[os1kne]

Health: I pay about $210/mo. to cover my wife and myself. At my old job that I left 4 months ago, it was almost $425/mo. for slightly better coverage with the same insurance co.

Life: The co. pays the bulk of the cost of a policy that covers 3x my salary if I die due to illness, etc. or 5x my salary if I die due to an accident. There is a cost to me associated with this, but I think it's only around $5-10/mo. - not enough to worry about.

[jziegler]

I have BCBS covered about 75% by the company for medical only, Delta Dental as an additional policy. I also do have life insurance through the company (2x salary, I think). The co-pays stayed the same this year, after going up last. $20 for an office visit. Prescriptions run from 15-50 depending on the tier. Unfortunately for me, there are only two options, employee or family, no employee + 1, so I pay more each paycheck.

It's a good plan, but not a great one, and this is working for a medical device manufacturer too.

Jim

[prlundberg]

There are lots of reasons why health care has gotten so expensive IMHO - medical malpractice insurance, ageing population that doesn't eat well or exercise properly, and little incentive for most consumers to shop around.

Agreed. There's also a mentality of "if I'm going to pay this much for insurance, I'm going to use it as much as I can." Understandable enough but it compounds the problem.

As a health insurance company employee, I get weary of complaints directed towards us. We're a member-owned, non-profit company, yet we seem to take the brunt of the anger. For paying their bills.

I have excellent insurance, as might be expected. But even working directly for my insurer, I don't think this will last forever.

Our health care costs are the highest in the world, yet contrary to popular belief, the care we recieve is average at best. Something needs to be done.

My two cents.

Phil

[Howard]

I'm the insurance biz and what I tell my clients is to get the highest deductible they can stand. With the advent of HMO's and PPO's, there has been a mentality that has developed that pushes folks to the doctor for the slightest thing because they only have to pay a $10-20 copayment. My brother in law is a Dr. for Kaiser in California and he tells me all the time of the craziest things people will come in for because it doesn't cost hardly anything to come to the clinic. Ichy eyelids, etc. Not kidding! If you don't use much healthcare, ie. a healthy individual or family, it makes no sense at all to get a lower deductible and higher co-payments (90-10 or even 80-20). The premium savings alone will be much larger than the cost of going to the Dr. once or twice a year. Although the cost of insurance is high, we do have the one of the best healthcare systems available in world, especially when we need it. As our Canadian friends can attest, it can sometimes take months to get an appointment for a MRI. My mom very recently was admitted to a hospital with Cellulitis which is a very dangerous and life-threatening condition. She received great treatment which I'll bet is going to cost well over $100,000 but she is still here with us because of it. My niece had a brain tumor the size of a small orange. She survived because of the excellent care she recieved at Eggleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta. It has cost well over a $1,000,000. Worth every penny. In another country, she very well would probably not have survived. The Health Savings Accounts are pretty good as well as you don't lose the balance in your account each year like employer provided versions (FSA's). It's not fun, that's for sure, but considering the alternative of going without coverage, you risk losing everything. Get a $2500 or $5000 deductible. You can plan for that but at least you won't be faced with a bankruptcy because you have a $250000 bill for a serious illness or accident. Your other choice is to go the local county hospital and wait...

[atgcpaul]

My last employer gave excellent health (I think <$200/m for me and my wife),
full dental, OK vision. Also life insurance equal to my salary plus 15% salary
towards my IRA without any contribution from me. This was HMO--yuck.

Now I'm a contractor for the Federal gov. I get no health or life benefits and
only ~10% of my salary to my IRA. My wife is now a Fed so I do all my benefits
through her and I think it runs her <$2-300/month. This is a PPO.

We have life insurance on our own.

Paul