How much do you pay for health insurance?

[denisenh]

last year i paid $285 a week (family) through work.....a big multi-facility company. Now, i pay about 1/2 that...new job.

 

[tonilea]

We pay $5000 per year for our part of a family plan. The department covers DH's part. Of course, it seems like every raise he gets is almost immediately eaten up by an insurance increase.

 

[Ember]

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

...

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

Thank you, I appreciate your answer!

 

[dismom2]

For us, unfortunately, I had to choose the highest amount. We have always paid for our own health, dental, eye insurance, and it goes up every year. It's depressing, but at least we're covered.

 

[bumbershoot]

But I've always been curious about how heavily Americans are taxed? I'm sure that what you pay in extra health coverage you save in taxes. Which is the exact opposite for us. We pay lots in taxes to get basic care.

IMO, we aren't taxed much at all. I once considered moving to Ireland, but in researching found that the level that I would hope to be making, I would be at something like 60% tax. And the healthcare there doesn't include any sort of non-medical stuff, and since I would have been working as a chiropractor obviously I'm not that into medical stuff unless actively and profusely bleeding (and since that's how my mom died, I doubt their ability to solve THAT problem anyway). The taxation in Europe is what put me off of it. I imagine Canada is somewhere up in that range as well.

And so I don't think we in the US are taxed much at all. (then again I'm in WA and we don't have a state income tax so that's nice...but we have nearly 10% sales tax) And I have NO idea how we're supposed to continue to do all that we as a country do in the world AND provide healthcare, without going up even BEYOND Canadian and European taxation rates! It just boggles my mind to try to do the math. Not a political thing with me, just a math thing.

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.

You were given descriptions, so I'll give you examples.

So right now we pay a bit over $300 per month for the premiums that cover health and dental insurance.

We each have a $300 deductible or a $900 family deductible. Since our family has 3 people, that's even. If we had more people, more kids, then we'd be getting a discount, so to speak, but right now it's pretty much...each of us would need to pay $300 out of pocket before the insurance coverage "kicked in".

So hubby had some appointments and two MRIs ('cuz the first was stupidly ordered in an open MRI machine...it was to see his pituitary right in the middle of his oversized noggin, they should have put him in the closed machine from the beginning), and that blew through his $300 FAST. Once he was done with the $300 that came out of our pockets, the insurance paid their 90%, and we got to pay the remaining 10%. That remaining 10% for us is called "co-insurance".

I saw a dermatologist, and got to pay his whole bill, which was about $129, and that goes towards MY deductible. DS has seen the chiropractor twice (no I don't take care of my family's spines, I hire out, LOL), she is a preferred provider with the insurance company and bills them, and we paid $31 for the first visit in this insurance year and $23 for the second.

Oh, backing up...the benefit of going "through" insurance is that providers agree to accept what insurance gives them. So, especially with chiros who play the insurance game, they carefully figure out the amount they charge, so that they get what they want/need from insurance. Insurance, in their infinite wisdom some months back, decided that $31 was just TOO MUCH to pay, and they only cover $23, or wahtever percentage of what they charged insurance that equals $23. Sadly, when I was practicing and charging a flat fee and providing my practice members with superbills (to send to their insurance companies to be reimbursed), I was charging $30 per visit, which was the prevailing rate of coverage then...and I closed my practice in 2000. SAD.

So anyway, I pay the out of pocket/deductible amount that insurance and the provider have agreed upon, NOT the amount that the provider willy nilly charges.

So if DS or I see someone soon, we'll still be paying out of pocket until that $300 is met. Hubby, because he sees someone regularly, gets the benefits. He had a recent visit with labwork, and insurance is still in-process, but so far we owe about $16 as a percentage of the allowable amounts, and insurance will pay the provider the rest of the percentage.


Clear as mud?



COBRA, from what we experienced, is a program that helps those who lose their jobs keep their coverage. That's important when you have a condition, b/c if you go without insurance for a certain period of time, insurance won't cover you for that condition. I have a friend who was diagnosed with chronic idiopathic hepatitis at 13, and she went from parental insurance to college insurance and got a government job IMMEDIATELY (city planner), and even if she wanted to go do some new passion, she really couldn't, because she HAS TO BE covered continuously...she had a liver transplant in March, and actually her monthly pill costs have gone down, she's taking far fewer pills now to keep her body happy with the new liver, than she was taking to keep her old liver chugging sadly along...but still, it's a tremendous cost. She can't just run off to Wales like she wants, unless she had something lined up and could be covered instantly, b/c she can't not take those pills.

Anyway, it's important, and basically what COBRA normally does is let you pay what your company has been paying...so you pay your portion and the ocmpany's. When DH was officially laid off June 1, and once the coverage ended end of June, we found out that our ~300 payment was about a third of what they were paying. So we would have been paying 1K every month. (so impossible) But THIS year, because of how things have gone, the gov't enacted some codicil or whatnot to let laid off employees (from something like November '08 through the end of December '09) only pay what they were paying...we paid that for July, then at the end of July he quit the contract job (no insurance) he had gotten b/c he went back to the old company and got right back into the (suddenly feeling) cozy insurance we had then.

So that's basically what COBRA does for us, and the special thing that's going on this year.

 

[golfgal]

We pay about $7000/year which is our 40% of DH's employer plan. I guess it shoots a hole in the comments on the other post that insurance in MN is cheaper . Most people on here pay a heck of a lot LESS then we do. I guess it is all relative. The only ones that pay more are self-employed and if you want to add up all the premiums, we pay more then anyone so far.

This is JUST our medical. It doesn't include what we pay for dental or vision coverage which is about another $100/month.

 

[elgerber]

We pay about $7000/year which is our 40% of DH's employer plan. I guess it shoots a hole in the comments on the other post that insurance in MN is cheaper . Most people on here pay a heck of a lot LESS then we do. I guess it is all relative. The only ones that pay more are self-employed and if you want to add up all the premiums, we pay more then anyone so far.

This is JUST our medical. It doesn't include what we pay for dental or vision coverage which is about another $100/month.

LOL, I think my post yesterday that I pay over $13000 a year with a $3000 deductible put a torpedo size hole in that comment!

 

[wdwfan16]

LOL, I think my post yesterday that I pay over $13000 a year with a $3000 deductible put a torpedo size hole in that comment!

You have us beat. We pay $12K/year with a $500 deductible but no RX coverage.

 

[SC Minnie]

Wow. We are extremely fortunate and the main reason I continue to work is for the insurance. The company I work for is self insured. They started a new plan last year with a higher deductible than before -$1000- plus 2 options for a lower deductible. If you chose the $1000 you actually get paid ~$40/month for family coverage. This includes medical, dental, and vision. Orthodontics is an extra $10/month.

Our old plan with $500 dedutible is now $250/month for family coverage. You get the same exact coverage. Not sure why anyone would chose this one or the $250 deductible plan which is ~$500/month.

 

[MIGrandma]

DH and I pay for our own health insurance, it's BCBS through Farm Bureau Insurance. Right now it is $1971 every 3 months just for the two of us. We have $2500 deductible on each of us, then I think it's 80/20. We do not have any co-pay on doctor visits, we pay for all of that ourselves. We do have some prescription coverage so that helps. But it's not great insurance and to have lower deductibles/co-pay it would be even more expensive.

They usually raise the rates yearly too, so I hate to see how much it's going to be when our next premium is due in November.

 

[lovin diz]

we pay $3600 per year for a family of 4. We have $0 deductible; we pay $15 copay, and $25 specialist copay. Meds are 1/2 of the price we would have to pay if we didnt have insurance, but maximum out of pocket for a med is $50.

Co pay for surgeries/er visit/mri, etc is $50.

 

[clori]

dh is unemployed but currently doing contract work for the same company that laid him off. He is still getting health insurance from the company under the severeance plan but that is ending soon so we are looking at various options. We used to pay under $400 a month for family health insurance with no deductibles or coinsurance, just copays. With the fed subsidy we have continued to pay around the same amount maybe $25 less.

Our severeance ends the end of October. Since November makes month 9 we still get the subsidized cobra rate but starting December 1st the same plan on cobra which we can only get for 8 more months or so will be $1335 for family insurance.

I started looking into private plans using MAhealthconnector.org. MA mandates health insurance. There are plans for people under x income but since dh worked all last year and most of this year we don't qualify. Our problem will be if/when we need to rely on unemployment. For regular private family health insurance looking at the offered programs and going directly to the companies websites that offer some more I think we have decided on a plan that will cost $1059 a month with a $2000 deductible. The cheapest family plans I have found are in the $800 range but have a very high deductible and coinsurance. There was one plan that looked good a little bit cheaper but then I saw it was limited drs/hospitals. Since I live near Boston I was surprised to find that only one hospital in the city was covered plus my local hospital wasn't covered.

Basically unless something changes we will be paying $12708 a year vs $4800 we used to pay and will also have a $2000 deductible. The new plan includes two dental cleanings and a yearly opthamologist visit.

 

[SCHBR'smom]

We pay around $5000/year for insurance for the family. Vision and dental add on another $1500/year.

 

[Ember]

You were given descriptions, so I'll give you examples.

That was extremely helpful, thank you! We get rather a lot of US news and politics here, but for some reason no one thinks to include a "Dummy's Guide" as to what everyone is talking about!

You should have seen me trying to figure out your election process when it was going on! LOL We don't have primaries or delegates or super delegates... And every time I asked, someone figured I was being "smart" and trying to start a debate when I really just wanted to know the basics.

 

[spima3]

Well, IF the poll refers to out of pocket for us a year, it runs around $2400 a year. We have $25 co-pays for Dr visits and $30 for specialists. No vision, and basic dental: two check-ups, cleanings, and x-rays as needed. For a more comprehensive dental, it would add another $700 a year. As the co-pays are high on the dental, it does not seem worth the costs.

Now, if the poll refers to our health insurance costs, the total would be closer to $13,000 a year. We don't see that due to the company picking up the balance. We are very fortunate to have this.

 

[PatsMom]

We are paying around $8,200 a year for DH, DD and me. Coverage is through DH's retirement plan. We are still fortunate enough that coverage is available! Also due to his years of service, his premiums are somewhat subsidized by the plan. However, they have reached what they call their "lifetime cap" on premium expenses and all further increases for him are passed along 100% to us, along with the increases for me and DD. The last two years premiums have increased around 15%.

We could obtain coverage through my employer but it would not be subsidized at all and would cost even more, although the coverage would be better.

Our coverage is OK - we are in a point of service plan so I don't have to mess with referrals to specialists which helps with the endocrinologist being a regular visit of mine! Along with an orthopedic doctor and a podiatrist. And DH's vascular surgeon and cardiologist. We do have $20 co-pays (which is pretty reasonable I think) as long as we stay in-network. Cigna has a pretty broad network so that hasn't really been a problem. Co-pay increases to $30 if we go to the walk in urgent care and I think it is $50 for emergency room. What hurts is the 20% co-insurance on most diagnostic tests (MRI, Cardiac Stress, X-Rays, etc) until we reach something like a $4,000 maximum family out of pocket. I think that is $1,500 per individual but I'm not sure.

Prescriptions must be done through mail order if they are maintenance drugs. This is a royal pain since two of my maintenance drugs are of the type that they will not deliver to a PO Box. I do not have mail delivery so the PO box is my only option. I've called half a dozen times and been told that they will fix it so that at least both my street address and PO Box show on the label but they haven't done it. Fortunately the post office lady has been great and she takes the time to look up my PO box and put the package in there. They are both generic versions of an anti anxiety drug and a pain killer. They are fairly inexpensive so I think I am just going to give in and pay the full price for them! Cost is reasonable though. $18 for a 3 month supply of a generic, $36 for brand name, $72 for non-formulary. We are required to try a Step 1 drug before we can have a Step 2 drug for certain medications. For example, I take Celebrex. Before I could have it, I could have had to spend a year destroying my stomach on various other anti-inflammatory drugs. Fortunately my doctor did not object to writing a letter saying I had a history of chronic ulcers and was already on medication for acid reflux disease so the other NSAIDS were inappropriate. And my Celebrex is approved. But I have to go through the same process each year at renewal. Same for my Cymbalta - I take it for neuropathy of the feet, not depression. But the endocrinologist has to justify it each year.

 

[Disnydad]

About $850 per month ($10,000+ per year) for a family plan with rx, vision & dental. Self employed so pay the full cost.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We're insured through DH's employer, and it's a little over $200 every two weeks for an 80/20 plan with $1500 deductible per year.

My employer offers a family plan for $275 every two weeks with a $4000 deductible and 80/20 after that. I work for a hospital.

 

[scrapquitler]

We have BC/BS here in CT, and my husband is self employed, so we pay the WHOLE cost of the insurance...$1200 per month. Our coverage is excellent except that it doesn't include dental and our hospitalization co-pay is $1500, which means that if there is a one night hospital stay for something fairly minor, the insurance pays basically none of it, we pay it all (when my DS had a hospital stay, we paid $1500 Copay, the insurance company paid like $300). Our prescription coverage pays only $500 per year per person, which doesn't help much when you have a child on a prescription that costs more than $100 per month. Grrr. And we can't switch to a different plan because that child has what they consider a 'pre existing condition' that only results in the need for that medication and no other care is really necessary.

 

[Darcy03231]

We don't pay anything for our family's health insurance. My DH is in a union and its part of his union dues. Dues are based on income and they fund his pension, annuity and health insurance. We have great insurance (health, dental, hearing, eye and prescription)! Co-pays for Dr. are $10 and prescriptions are $5 for generic and $10 for brand name. We're not required to have a primary care physician and there is no network. We can go where ever we want.