Does your job pay 100% for your health insurance?

[sam_gordon]

I am saying I don't think the employer should be involved in health insurance in any way.

Everyone should be buying their own insurance.

Tying insurance to employment was a horrible decision made 80 or so years ago.

The benefit to the employee is an employer has more "buying power" (generally). Buying more of something usually means lower per item cost. Granted, I've been with the same employer my entire career, but I've always had a choice of 2-3 different plans, and optional dental, life, and vision insurance. I've also had the option to turn down the company's plans and go out on my own.

There are some companies that will give you money (either into an HSA or possibly just into your check) if you turn down their offered insurance.

I agree it was offered as a "perk" way back when. But I don't think you're forced to take it.

 

[DisneyHardin]

My husband's job pays 100% of his insurance. My job has an option that they pay 100% off, but I chose a better option, so I pay the difference of $80/month.

 

[dez1978]

Mine is heavily subsidized. If you want to know the true cost, ask your HR what the cobra rate is since that is the unsubsidized cost.

Mine is shown on the bottom of every pay stub, what I pay and what the employer contributes. For my fam of 4 I pay 350/mo and my job (I work for the state) pays about 1200. I have a $1200 deductible with a 4k oop max per year. This does not include vision or dental because NVA and Metlife dental are a joke that basically amounts to a "discount" plan. Tho this year, when I got glasses when I added my premiums plus my out of pocket cost for them, it was about 50 MORE than my cash price would have been if I'd have paid out of pocket. So we will not be using them again.

 

[kdonnel]

The benefit to the employee is an employer has more "buying power" (generally). Buying more of something usually means lower per item cost. Granted, I've been with the same employer my entire career, but I've always had a choice of 2-3 different plans, and optional dental, life, and vision insurance. I've also had the option to turn down the company's plans and go out on my own.

There are some companies that will give you money (either into an HSA or possibly just into your check) if you turn down their offered insurance.

I agree it was offered as a "perk" way back when. But I don't think you're forced to take it.

Things would have played out differently if insurance had never been tied to employment.

There is really no way to know if it would be better or worse if our current system had not been put in place 80 or so years ago but my belief is that the current system of crap would have matured much differently.

 

[GAN]

Things would have played out differently if insurance had never been tied to employment.

There is really no way to know if it would be better or worse if our current system had not been put in place 80 or so years ago but my belief is that the current system of crap would have matured much differently.

I agree with you. But especially in a job market like it is now, companies are offering insurance and more to retain top talent. And you can't force a business, then or now, to go that route. What you're suggesting is the government stepping in to prohibit offering insurance(to a certain extent, since there is no other way) -I have a feeling most people would be against a plan like that. Insurance lobbies are strong and I'd be shocked if they aren't a HUGE benefactor from the current system.

 

[Cheburashka]

All of my premium is paid, but of course I have to pay copays and coinsurance. And some providers don't take my insurance at all. I don't carry dental insurance because my dentist isn't in network for what my employer offers.

 

[sunshine1178]

No, I pay $1200/month for family coverage. The company pays $1400. My deductible is $5000/person. They don’t believe me when I tell them the broker is screwing them.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

No. My first job out of college was with a third party administrator for small group insurance plans (fully self-funded and partially self-funded). They had about 50 employees and paid 100% of the employee portion and a portion of the dependent. I don't know how much because I had no dependents at the time. My second job was with an international company with several thousand employees. They paid about 80% of the employee portion and I don't know how much of the dependent portion, since I still had no dependents. My current employer has four employees, including me and they don't even offer a health plan, so I buy my own insurance.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

LOL, no. Although the insurance is better and the premium is lower from my wife's work than from mine.

 

[msjprincess]

They did until about 10 years ago. Now we pay about $100 a week for family plan for Medical, Dental, and Vision.

 

[prairie_girl]

My husband and I are covered through his benefits for extras like chiropractor, or glasses, or massage therapist, dentist, and things of that nature. Everything else is covered by the province or federally.

 

[prairie_girl]

My husband’s employer has paid for his for almost 40 years now. We have to pay for mine though.

You aren't covered by your husbands plan as well?

Mine is shown on the bottom of every pay stub, what I pay and what the employer contributes. For my fam of 4 I pay 350/mo and my job (I work for the state) pays about 1200. I have a $1200 deductible with a 4k oop max per year. This does not include vision or dental because NVA and Metlife dental are a joke that basically amounts to a "discount" plan. Tho this year, when I got glasses when I added my premiums plus my out of pocket cost for them, it was about 50 MORE than my cash price would have been if I'd have paid out of pocket. So we will not be using them again.

So you have to pay $1200 then get covered for $4K and then it's back to oop?

No, I pay $1200/month for family coverage. The company pays $1400. My deductible is $5000/person. They don’t believe me when I tell them the broker is screwing them.

So you have to pay for $5000 yourself before the benefits kick in? And you have to pay $1200 a month on top of that?

 

[tvguy]

I switched jobs in 1989 and my new employer did pay 100% of employee and family health care. We got new owners two years later and they started charging. They were a small company and we were their first location where they even offered health insurance.

 

[disneychrista]

If I was to choose the high deductible plan it would be covered 100%. The lower deductible plan is covered at about 90%. But even with that my biweekly deduction is doubling for 2022. From $21 to $45.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

You aren't covered by your husbands plan as well?

I am, they pay for him but we still have to pay for me.

 

[Skywalker3]

hmm, DH and I are both federal employees, never had insurance paid 100%, and have always had family insurance under his benefit....it's well subsidized, but after reading all these posts where folks have 100% paid insurance premiums, starting to wonder if our benefits are so great....we dont' have any deductible tho, but do have co-pays for services. Next year, will be $212 per pay period for our premiums

 

[bcla]

Mine is heavily subsidized. If you want to know the true cost, ask your HR what the cobra rate is since that is the unsubsidized cost.

The true cost depends. With COBRA the costs for an employer that pays a premium is easy, but self-insured involves actuarials.

 

[ronandannette]

My husband and I are covered through his benefits for extras like chiropractor, or glasses, or massage therapist, dentist, and things of that nature. Everything else is covered by the province or federally.

What about prescription drugs? That's probably the biggest expense most of us run through our benefits. I wasn't aware Manitoba paid for them. Federal coverage for drugs has not gotten off the ground.

 

[bcla]

The benefit to the employee is an employer has more "buying power" (generally). Buying more of something usually means lower per item cost. Granted, I've been with the same employer my entire career, but I've always had a choice of 2-3 different plans, and optional dental, life, and vision insurance. I've also had the option to turn down the company's plans and go out on my own.

There are some companies that will give you money (either into an HSA or possibly just into your check) if you turn down their offered insurance.

I agree it was offered as a "perk" way back when. But I don't think you're forced to take it.

Large employers self-insure such that they can theoretically spend less if the workforce is relatively healthy. But that puts employers into a real bind if there are a lot of costs, such as a few getting really expensive care. I remember one CEO who blamed a poor quarterly report on a few families needing highly specialized care costing millions of dollars.

It might also create an incentive (however illegal) to not hire or retain someone based on a perception of how much medical care is going to cost. In the case of employees with families, it might create an incentive to preferentially lay off employees with families when the employer covers part of the premium cost.

 

[DebbieB]

I work for a major insurance company and pay $83 every 2 weeks for single.