How much do you pay for health insurance?

[Colleen27]

We pay in the neighborhood of $5000 in premiums right now, going up another 20% for 2010 - 3 straight years of double-digit increases , then another $5000 in deductibles before the insurance pays one dime on our behalf.

 

[Piecey]

DH's insurance is $77.89 biweekly. So $2025.14/year.

It includes all 3 of us. A family deductible of $700. Rx, as long as they are generic, are $5. Dr.'s visit copays are $10/$20 specialist. Most things are paid 85/15 with a max of $5k out of pocket, I think. I'd have to look that up.

It includes an eye exam yearly for each of us with a $5 copay. Two covered teeth cleanings/exams per person, too.

 

[elgerber]

I am employed through my job and for family coverage I pay 13200 per year, and I have a $3000 deductible to pay before any coverage, and then it's 80/20 up to $6000 out of pocket! Don't even get me started on health insurance, UGH!!!!

 

[Pakey]

I pay close to $4000 per year for my husband and I. We have a $20 co-pay for office visits and the Rx coverage depends on the medication. For one of my medications, I pay $80/month.

Our coverage is less than spectacular. When I was going through chemo 3 years ago, I paid $16,000 OOP for one of the chemo drugs that the insurance would not cover (it did not go against my deductible because it was considered an RX charge). Still, my expenses were over $200,000 that year so I was/am grateful to have insurance at any level. You pay for years, never using it, and then it only takes a blink of the eye for everything to change.

 

[JessicaR]

I pay $17,000 a year just for the premium, for a family plan. My doctor copay is $35 a visit. I have $150 copay for the ER and a $500 copay per hospital stay. My prescription plan is $10/50/75

I never have and would hate to add what I spend total each year.

 

[Kath2003]

I pay $3000 a year for my pension, welfare contributions and my healthcare. The excess on prescriptions is $12; contraception is free. If I had any children, they would be covered and there would be no excess. There is no copay, or anything else out of pocket. If I lost my job, I'd pay $0 and still have the same level of cover but the prescription excess would disappear too. It also covers most of my dental treatment; the maximum copay I could be asked to pay for dental is $200.

 

[maddmike]

I voted "under $500 per year" but that's not really the case.

My DH belongs to a union and no money is taken from his pay for family health insurance. We don't have a choice to take it or not to take it. We just have it. He does pay union dues and part of those dues fund the health care. But again, we don't have a choice to opt out and get a break on the dues. So basically, it is sort of "free" for us, but not really.

If I took health care through my employer (the Federal Government), a single policy would be about $50 per pay period (26 pay periods) are roughly $150 per pay period for a family policy.

That sounds like me too. I said earlier my insurance was paid for by my employer. However, over the last five to eight years I, along with my coworkers have given up over $7 and hour in raises to help pay for the medical insurance. In the long run I am like most and am paying an arm and a leg for the coverage.

 

[jsmith]

we were paying $256.00 per pay period-or 6072. per year for family coverage for medical-and other 24 a month for dental and 11.50 for vision-that was about two year ago-since he has been on active duty we have been on military health coverage and paying 2150 a month for dental and 11 a month for vision thru my employer -just to cover me and the one child still at home-we will not go back to civilian health coverage -we will use the pay version of military health that is available to reservists til hubby is retired and then the retiree version of military health.

 

[Ember]

I'm sorry for my ignorance here (I'm Canadian - totally different health care system) but what is a copay? Also, the deductible works kind of like car insurance? So you pay the deductible upfront and then insurance covers the rest? Does your insurance go up if you actually utilize it? One more: What is COBRA? I've heard this term used a lot, too.

Again, sorry for all the questions, I am absolutely not looking for a debate or anything, but I've been hearing a lot about it and I'd really like to know more.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

It is covered by DH's employer. We have no deductibles, just copay of $15 for primary, $25 for specialist, $50 ER. Prescriptions are $10, $20, or $40 max. I do love our medical insurance.

We do pay about $35 a month for dental for the 4 of us.

 

[chell]

Since my husband lost his job in June we are now on Cobra. If it wasn't for the subsidy we would be paying about $9,300 a year. We are VERY thankful for the subsidy right now. He does draw unemployment but it isn't as much as he was making. He is going to school now so things are different in our home.

Lately I've been pretty sick so we've had more co-pays. Ugh...

 

[eliza61]

Coverage for spouse and I is $58 per week which is $3016 annually.
Our RX copays are 25,30, 50
Office visits to primary care doc are $30 and $50 for specialist

Basically - every year our coverage gets worse and worse and costs more and more.

Dental is an additional charge and is not included in the amounts above.

That sums it up nicely for us also. I'm in NJ with Aetna, last year we (the state) had to sue the top insurance carriers because they were kicking women out of the hospital 16 hours after delivery a baby!!! Literally forcing women to have drive through births.
This year they are trying to cut out the aethestisia (sp) if you go in for a colonoscopy
Of course they rack in billions of profits this year.
Can you tell I hate the insurance racket. They are simple the mob with a fancy logo

 

[4forMe]

DH is self-employed and does not have a group plan through his office. For our family plan to cover the 6 of us it costs $1275/month=$15,300 per year. We also have to meet a deductible of $1500 per year before the 80/20 coverage kicks in. We spend about $4,000 out of pocket per year in addition to the yearly premium which makes it close to 20k per year. However, we insisted on a PPO rather than an HMO. We've had several situations in the past several years where we had to see different specialists and with the PPO there is no referral needed and they get you in promptly. The horrible thing is the insurance company increases the rate whenever they feel like it. When we started our family plan, we were paying $700 per month.

 

[3boymthr]

I'm sorry for my ignorance here (I'm Canadian - totally different health care system) but what is a copay? Also, the deductible works kind of like car insurance? So you pay the deductible upfront and then insurance covers the rest? Does your insurance go up if you actually utilize it? One more: What is COBRA? I've heard this term used a lot, too.

Again, sorry for all the questions, I am absolutely not looking for a debate or anything, but I've been hearing a lot about it and I'd really like to know more.

Okay, I'll try to answer but this is going to be long.

A co-pay is a set $ amount or % dollar amount that you pay each time you visit the doctor, clinic or emergency room or each time you pick up a prescription. It's a version of cost shifting to reduce the premiums paid by the employer and to make the employee/enrollee responsible for a portion of their health care and which the plan hopes will motivate them to responsibly choose their health care, as in seek out a primary care physician instead of the ER when they have a cold or ear infection. Or even a primary care physician instead of a clinic.

The deductible for medical insurance is similar to the deductible for homeowners or auto insurance and you pay that much before insurance benefits kick in. Except that often after you have reached your deductible you will also have to pay 10, 20, 30% or more to a certain $ amount to reach an Out of Pocket Maximum. Deductibles and Out of Pocket Maximums vary by plan and can also vary by family status. In addition deductibles may apply to just a portion of your benefits or all your benefits. Limits on how high a deductibles and coinsurance may go are also sometimes set by state goverments but in some states there are no limits on how high these benifits may be set. There are plans with unlimited co-insurance requirements. In addition many plans also impose a lifetime maximum of $1 Million or $2 Million, etc. or a plan may have an unlimited lifetime maximum.

COBRA is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. See this link to the US Department of Labor official website for a brief description and links to all the rules of which there are many. http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm
The rules are so complicated and twisted that we have a woman in our office whose sole job is to keep track of and advise our clients on changes in laws that are affected by COBRA and vice versa.

If you have any more questions please PM me and I'd be happy to try to help.

 

[beachbunny]

$85/month for both me and DH. $14 copay. $5 generic prescriptions. Last year I had surgery which cost around $15,000. I only paid about $125 out of pocket - I think that was my portion of a pre-surgery MRI because all of the surgical and in-patient hospital costs were covered.

 

[portocall]

We pay over $5000 a year for family coverage. The kicker is that is only 25% of our policy. My husband's employeer pays the other 75% so if we ever needed to pay COBRA, it would be $1298 per month for the same policy. Coverage is spotty. They refused to pay for fetal non-stress tests because they have nothing to do with a baby and any blood work done in the hospital is not covered because it is reviewed by a doctor before being sent out That said, they did pay for other thing.... nothing is perfect...

 

[disney1990]

My DH is retired and our health insurance coverage is included at no cost in his retirement benefits.

 

[travelbug]

I'm very fortunate that my employer covers 100% of the cost, not only for the employee but for the employee's family. We also receive excellent disability insurance that the employer pays for.

 

[DawnCt1]

For DH, myself and DS#4, $500/month. For DS#1, who has returned to school full time with a pre existing condition, $509 per month. (COBRA) For DS#3, no preexisting condition, $163 per month.

 

[novajeanjellybean]

I pay $93 twice a month for health insurance. With vision and dental it comes to $127 twice a month for my self and my BF. Totals to $3048 with $2232 for health insurance.