Employer dropping health insurance---now I am lost and need advice.

[Krischaser]

Well my employer is dropping medical coverage and is offering medical reimbursement of $200 a month towards your own private plan. Well I am at a loss. We do not make enough to afford private but too much for state insurance. I am going crazy trying to figure out how it will work. Right now we are also paying for childcare on top of everything else. We are a family of five and dh and I don't go to the doctor that much but we have 3 boys. We have a two year old still who gets the earaches, sore throats, ect. The older two don't go as often but they do go whenever the seasons seem to change or whenever one gets hurt from being "boys" lol. I don't know what kind of insurance I can afford. We are cutting way down and still I don't know how we are going to afford it. I am just at a loss My youngest will be going to preschool in the fall and that will lighten the daycare cost some. (and I mean some). I just don't know how to do it? I guess I am venting since dh hears it all the time. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Thanks for allowing me to vent

 

[Lisa_M]

Did you call MIChild? According to the brochure here: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/MIChildflyerEnglish_11845_7.pdf

it says at the bottom to call because you may qualify depending on family circumstances despite income or family size. Can't hurt to call and find out.

Does your husband's employer offer insurance? I know Michigan is in a bad way economically, but would suggest you start looking for another job, even in another state or look at any extras you might have to get rid of to be able to pay for insurance (ie: cable, netflix, home or cell phone, extracurriculars)
You can also start pricing out catastropic care policies. Good luck!

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

Look into your state's Blue Cross Blue Shield private insurance policies. Some of the guys my DH works with said they got some through BC/BS of LA for less than $400 per month for the whole family. And they weren't bad high deductible policies either. They had co-pays for office visits and co-pays for prescriptions.

You can customize the policy. If you know you aren't having any more kids then don't add on maternity coverage.

You just have to find out what major insurance companies offer insurance in your state and start calling and comparing policies and prices. You may be able to do some of the research online through the insurance carriers websites.

I don't know who the major carriers are. Maybe someone else can pop in and give you that info. I know of BC/BS and United.

 

[Marionnette]

 

[CowboyCO]

Well my employer is dropping medical coverage and is offering medical reimbursement of $200 a month towards your own private plan. Well I am at a loss. We do not make enough to afford private but too much for state insurance. I am going crazy trying to figure out how it will work. Right now we are also paying for childcare on top of everything else. We are a family of five and dh and I don't go to the doctor that much but we have 3 boys. We have a two year old still who gets the earaches, sore throats, ect. The older two don't go as often but they do go whenever the seasons seem to change or whenever one gets hurt from being "boys" lol. I don't know what kind of insurance I can afford. We are cutting way down and still I don't know how we are going to afford it. I am just at a loss My youngest will be going to preschool in the fall and that will lighten the daycare cost some. (and I mean some). I just don't know how to do it? I guess I am venting since dh hears it all the time. Any ideas or suggestions would be great. Thanks for allowing me to vent

Check the BCBS flex 5000 plan. It is an HSA and you can use the $200 a month from the employer to fund the HSA.

I use Anthem BCBS is Colorado, and it was about $375/month for us for a high dedectible plan that had 3 - $30 copays for each person per year.

Many small companies are dropping health coverage due to the skyrocketing cost of group coverage with the new requirements brought forth by recent legislation, which have done the opposite of what was promised.

 

[Kellydelly]

When my husband lost his job we signed him and I up for Flexible Blue through BCBS. Our kids qualified for Medicaid, which we signed them up for but never ended up using. Check out this link to see what plans may work for your family. With $200 chipped in from your employer it won't be totally ugly to pay for it out of pocket. Are you elgible for a health savings account or flexible spending account through your employer? Putting in money pre-tax to a health/flexible savings account can save you 40% in costs.

http://www.bcbsm.com/myblue/ppo-flexible-blue.shtml

 

[dawnn12]

Im in pa and we have a thing called chip for uninsured kids i would check to see if your state has something like that or even ask if they know where would could get affordable insurance at. a friend at work has that program for her kids(at our job it would cost more a week then what we make to insure our dh and kids yup its crazy) she does pay i think 40 a month per kid but they might be able to help

 

[bjscheel]

DH and the kids are on their own plan...I just went on the Wellmark site (Blue Cross) to find it. The deductible is $3300 I think. We pay everything till we hit that amount, then they pay 100%. It is $289/month.

We've never hit the deductible, but if we had to, we could cover $3300/year. I would rather pay a lower premium and MAYBE have to pay for some doctor visits, than to pay a for-sure high premium each month to pay less at our handful of doctor visits.

We've always had our own insurance in some form depending on our circumstances at the time- all 4 of us, just the 2 of us while the kids were on the state program, now the 3 of them because I qualify to be on the insurance at work. It's cheaper for us to get our own for the rest of the family than to put them on the family plan at work!

 

[SLJ6974]

Ya, I to think that many more companies are heading in this direction. Eventually your medical insurance premium each month will be more than your mortgage, grocery bill, power bill, everything. It just won't be worth actually working and having anything.

 

[leahjade]

Check out plans online. My friend's husband lost his job and got a basic plan for $300 a month for a family of 3. You'd only have to pay $100 a month with your $200 reimbursement which is a lot cheaper than our payroll deduction for insurance so don't panic!

 

[TheRatPack]

We had a family plan through BC/BS and it was around 400.00 a month (that was for a family of 4). That was many years ago and we've not checked on it in a long time....but we may have to soon. My husbands employer is really pushing the HSA, but due to our adopted children's insurance we can't do an HSA without messing up their secondary insurance.

Our family insurance plan through the company cost around 800.00 a month right now though...it's getting more and more every year. I don't think it'll be around much longer and it scares me

 

[sookie]

If your baby is two, thankfully he is outside the stage where he has a well baby checkup every few months.
I look into a catastrophic plan that covers nothing until a 3-5k deducatable - then after that items are covered, usually at 100%. You can also look at getting Flex spending account to help with your budgeting. Also, if you are worried about immunizations - if you are uninsured or underinsured, you can usually get these at the health department for a much lower rate. It is also possible that with the loss of coverage that your children might be eligible for state coverage - even though you make a good income. I know in some states, if you are under 19, you are pretty much approved.

 

[Mrs D]

My DH works for BCBS of IL/TX/OK (in IT), I can tell you insurance companies are preparing of this to be the way of the future for small businesses.
Please check into BCBS in your state as well as other major health care corps. You *should* be able to find something that will work for you.

Good luck.

 

[PatsMom]

We've been thinking about this lately. I work for a small company that currently has an outrageously expensive group plan. The employee pays 100% of the cost. When that is no longer possible, they have told the participants that they will drop coverage. Our insurance is through my husband's pension plan and we pay pretty high premiums. And they have considered dropping coverage.

We would find some kind of plan - I have cancer, diabetes, arthritis and a bunch of other stuff and he has a heart condition. So uninsured is not an option under any circumstances. I think we would do a high deductible plan and just budget to pay the deductibles.

 

[mickeyplanner08]

Don't know where you are in Michigan, but I plugged in a family of 5 with parents 40-44 and got a monthly premium of around $400. This is a high deductible HSA plan, but wellness visits and immunizations are covered. Not so crazy expensive. $5000 deductible for ill visits/hospitalizations. Just something else to look into.