how much do you pay for health insurance?

[jt'smom]

this whole health care reform thing has got me wondering about how much people are currently paying for their health insurance. i'm a sahm and my husband covers our family through his employer's plan, and after going through the yearly "open enrollement" and debating back and forth between the normal ppo plan and the hsa/high deductible plan, i'm just dumbfounded at how much it costs us. we have the ppo (united healthcare, 70/30 plan with $35 copay and $3500 year deductible). we pay $469 twice a month through his pre-tax payroll deduction, so it totals $11, 256 a year. he works for a small-medium size regional company that employs around 100 people full-time, and i've got no idea how much his company actually contributes towards the premiums, but since our portion is so high i'm assuming it is very little. anyway, when i realized that we pay over $11,000 before we even GO to the doctor, i was trying to figure if we would do better going with the hsa/high deductible plan and have the same amount of money deducted (minus the new premium) and put directly in the hsa each month. tax-wise, we need that money to be deducted and therefore tax-exempt, but i'm very worried about what is going to happen with all of this new health-bill fiasco. i'm just very curious what other people pay, because it just seems like we pay alot more than "normal"...

 

[An_Island_Girl]

We pay $1200 a month for our family HMO plan (2 adults one child) through Blue Cross. We are self-employed, so unfortunately we don't have anyone else to help foot the bill.
My husband has a family history of heart problems, so to go without health insure would be pretty scary.

 

[Heidijs]

Health insurance sucks...my insurance is free for myself but once I had DD, I had to add the family plan. I think right now I pay about $280 but that's pre-taxed insurance...so it's really not even that much. We have a $2900 family deductible with this BUT my employer funds our deductibles 100% into a VEBA account...we never lose that money. They've been doing this the last 3 years and DD and I rarely use our insurance so we have like $8,000 saved up in there. We can use it for anything, dental, vision, whatever...my fiance has the same plan through the same employer and he never uses his money either so if they ever stop funding our accounts and we have to start paying for our deductibles ourselves...at least we have this money to fall back on instead of out of pocket...so basically we have a 0 deductible right now. We have Health Partners in Minnesota. Once our $2900 is met, it's 100% coverage. My fiance's single coverage is free and his deductible is $1500. He met his last year and everything was free after that.

Our dental is free too until I add family but for now I just pay for her exams and use the VEBA money to pay for them since it's not that much...I also have Dental AFLAC which really kicks butt! We both do, we get crowns all the time and our dental pays 60% for them and our AFLAC cuts us a check for each crown and we still come out ahead...

 

[Micday]

WOW!!

You guys have to pay huge amounts.

I carry our insurance thru my employer which includes:

Medical (cigna, pay $20 per Dr visit)
prescriptions
Dental
Eye
Life Insurance
Short-term and long term disablity

I pay $160 a month.

This is for my two adults and two children.

 

[3boymthr]

Well, you definitely pay way way more than us - but it's definitely a regional thing. Massachusetts has an insurance law that limits on how much an employer can charge as well as limits on maximum deductible (even if the plan is HSA) and a whole bunch of other crazy rules or the company will pay a huge fine (I know of one company that's paying a fine in excess of 6 figures). Of course we, as individuals, also have to take insurance or pay a hefty fine ($150/individual/month).

We're covered thru DH's employer plan. He works for a small home heating oil company of about 25 employees but many of them are PT (The guys who drive trucks to deliver the oil are also all Fire Fighters for the towns near where his company is located). His company charge him $54/wk. We have an HMO with a $25 co-pay for office visits and $250 hospital co-pay. Everything is paid 100% after co-pays. If we wanted to drop our weekly contribution to $20 then we could elect a plan with a $20 office visit copay and a $1,000 deductible for all other services.

 

[Heidijs]

this whole health care reform thing has got me wondering about how much people are currently paying for their health insurance. i'm a sahm and my husband covers our family through his employer's plan, and after going through the yearly "open enrollement" and debating back and forth between the normal ppo plan and the hsa/high deductible plan, i'm just dumbfounded at how much it costs us. we have the ppo (united healthcare, 70/30 plan with $35 copay and $3500 year deductible). we pay $469 twice a month through his pre-tax payroll deduction, so it totals $11, 256 a year. he works for a small-medium size regional company that employs around 100 people full-time, and i've got no idea how much his company actually contributes towards the premiums, but since our portion is so high i'm assuming it is very little. anyway, when i realized that we pay over $11,000 before we even GO to the doctor, i was trying to figure if we would do better going with the hsa/high deductible plan and have the same amount of money deducted (minus the new premium) and put directly in the hsa each month. tax-wise, we need that money to be deducted and therefore tax-exempt, but i'm very worried about what is going to happen with all of this new health-bill fiasco. i'm just very curious what other people pay, because it just seems like we pay alot more than "normal"...

Are you talking a health savings plan you have to use up at the end of the year like a cafeteria plan? Careful of those, if you don't use it at the end of the year, you lose it!!!

 

[caribear]

My DH works for the state yet I do not think our benefits are that great.

Family of 4:
Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO $300/month

$15 co-pay for family doctor (well visits are no co-pay)

$25 co-pay for a specialist (allergy, dermatology, ect)

80/20 after co-pay for hospital (Even though we have insurance we paid around $1000 out-of-pocket for the hospital bill after the birth of my children and $900 out-of-pocket for the OB/GYN during the pregnancy.)

$250 deductible per person or $500 family

Dental is $70/month with hardly any dentists to choose from...even though we have the family plan I still take my children to a pediatric dentist (which is NOT covered) and pay $200 per cleaning!

No eyecare coverage for glasses/contacts

Life Insurance is separate...not sure how much DH pays....

 

[mybabesuz]

We pay $78 a WEEK thru my DH's Employer! and we have a $5000 deductible!

It was $48 a week with a $3000 deductible last year.

So we are paying over $9000 a year before we even get a penny of coverage...$4056 in payments and $5000 deductible...
Well I guess we do get well visits...But they don't cost $9000 !

We are soooo getting ripped off.
What we really have is major medical coverage!

I am so ready for a change in healthcare!

 

[blanq]

We (DH, DS and me) have our insurance through my husband's employer, a utility. We have a high deductible health plan with an HSA. His employer pays the entire cost of the HD health plan, and they contribute $1K per year toward the HSA. I wish I knew what the employer's cost for the health plan is, but I don't know. We fund the remainder of the HSA, currently to $5K per year, through payroll deduction. So, we are currently paying about $335/mo for our medical care. That does not include dental or vision. We pay an additional $75/mo for dental, and do not have vision insurance. Once we reach our deductibles, the HD health plan kicks in. We have only had this plan for two years, and so far our insurance has never kicked in; we have paid for every dime of our health care out of our HSA. Although insurance has never paid out, I like that we get the negotiated plan rates for our care, paying less than someone who does not have insurance would pay.

I actually do like the plan we have, as it does make you think about your health care more. I now see a Physician's Assistant instead of a Dr, when I make appointments because it costs less. I also think long and hard about going to the clinic at all. I like HSA's better than FSA's because if you don't use your money it rolls over into the next year. I am hoping we have a sum in there to carry us into retirement.

 

[rockundergirl]

I pay about 190.00 a month for myself and my son after my work contributions. But I happen to know my work pays about 9000 grand a year per employee for our health care, and we have high deductibles.

 

[elgerber]

We pay $78 a WEEK thru my DH's Employer! and we have a $5000 deductible!

It was $48 a week with a $3000 deductible last year.

So we are paying over $9000 a year before we even get a penny of coverage...$4056 in payments and $5000 deductible...
Well I guess we do get well visits...But they don't cost $9000 !

We are soooo getting ripped off.
What we really have is major medical coverage!

I am so ready for a change in healthcare!

I would love to have what you have. I pay, thru my employer, $1141 a month, then I have a $4000 deductible, then I get 80/20 coverage until we reach $8000 out of pocket, then we finally get it all covered.
So, before I get a single penny paid towards our care, I have to pay $17,692, and then I still have to pay 20% for the next $4000.
Right now I am barely making enough in income to cover the premium/HSA contribution.

 

[foltzy]

We pay $152 every 2 weeks through my dh work for a family of 4. We have to pay Coinsurance of $1500 and Deductible of $1000 a year per person, there is a max for family but can't remember what it is at the moment. We pay $25 for co-pays and $40 for specialists. We also pay have 80/20 for procedures.

No dental and no eye. They come straight out of pocket for the whole family.

 

[marlaine]

My DH is employed at a place that does not have insurance for the employees. For me (47), DH (64) and DS(6) we pay $556.00 per month with a $5000.00 deductable.
That's $6656 per year. Plus the deductable.
We have no pre-existing problems. We live in Indiana.
On the upside, Medicare will kick in next Oct.
We go without a lot of things so that we can afford our insurance.

 

[Heidijs]

Wow, I used to think what I had was a rip...now I think I have a gold plan...wow... I won't complain anymore!

 

[singnring]

DH is self-employed.

Our premiums are paid 100% OOP for whatever ins we get.
We started out with an awesome pln thru Prmount a few years ago.
100% coverage on most everything, dr office visits $5 co-pay, Rx card with great co-pays.

Then they increased our premiums substantially. We kept it one more year; another increase.
So we bumped down a step and paid less monthly, but increses in co-pays and not 100% coverage.
Last year, another increase.
We paid about $800/month at the highest amount.

This year we switched to an HSA with high ded - I think it's $2000pp/5000 family.

THe monthly premium is $440 for the three of us, and we have a crappy Rx card, and now everything is paid OOP until we meet the deductible.

My daughter uses an inhaler. On our old plan, we paid $50 each time. On this HSA, it went up to $210.
We had to have the doctor change her Rx 4 times before we found something affordable with our plan.

There's a lot to be said for the peace-of-mind that goes along with the higher costing plans. But at some point it just becomes unaffordable to stay with them when they keep jacking your premiums.

We rarely use our coverage (outside of DD's inhaler and an occasional office visit (maybe 2 per year for the family, if that), so when Paramount kept increasing our rate, we finally realized it wasn't worth the money we were forking out.

But even the HSA is pretty steep IMO.

Worst thing is, we get taxed on the money we have to pay out for premiums. When n employer pays money for health care for employees, they get to deduct it as an expense. We can't deduct until after they charge us all of the FICA taxes, which also hurts us on EIC and other tax breaks.

Not a fair shake to the SE person at all.

Sorry, got a little OT!

 

[SandrA9810]

52$ a week for two adults. It's amusing how two adults is more than the family plan.

It's through Cigna on the Med 70... which means, they pay 70 we pay 30. Dr visits are like 20$ co-pay, chiropracter is 20$ co-pay, 90$ for the ER.
We also have the PPO Dental, which costs a little bit more, but we can go to a dentist that does oral surgery too. x-rays are free and cleanings are free. I forget what the deductable is on that.
And high vision which allows for yearly exams and a new pair of glasses. The free vision allows for a new frame every other year, with new lenses once a year. But the high vision gives a bigger allowance with a smaller co-pay, so it's worth it.

Through Disney as well, to make sure every one chooses insurance, they offer big incentives. Like the med 70 plan, they'll give you 250$ in an FSA account. And then if you keep up with certain criteria you can get 4$ per person savings on your premiums over the course of the year. So not only do they want you to have it, they want you to take advantage of all that it offers and stay healthy, instead of just seeing a doctor when you get sick.

And with that 52$ a week there's the life insurance, supplemental, disability, group legal, and FSA account.

 

[PigletsMommy]

We have insurance thru DH's employer and we are the only one in the county (he is an EMT for the county) who has family coverage. Premiums are just shy of $900 a month. Plus $25 for a dr visit and $75 for ER visit. They pay nothing on family premiums, but pay 100% for individual premiums. It makes me so mad and feels like discrimination against families to me.

December was awful for us. DD had multiple ear infections, bronchitis, and we also found out she has "environmental allergies". She was at the DR 4 times and ER once. I was at Dr & ER once each. DH was at Dr 3 times. Basically we were all sick for the entire month. This does not count all of our prescriptions.

We just signed up for dental and it is $70 a month. Only thing they didnt tell us was that they take it out once a month on the first check of the month

DH & I are both job hunting just because of insurance. Right now I stay home with our DD and babysit a few other children. I make decent money doing this and I hate the thought of putting my DD into a daycare if I go back to work but what else can I do I've looked at buying our own insurance but the deductibles were insane.

 

[tabithakp]

These numbers are frightening to me. I live in Canada and although i knew you had to pay to see a dr. i had no idea that your company benefits cost you so much out of pocket!

Are company benefits are very different. i didnt see anyone talking about massage therapy, natural path, chiro, accupuncture? are these type of things covered? Do you pay for prescriptions?

It seems like a lot of money?

 

[bettymae1121]

My employer is very generous, and pays 90% of our health premium. For just me and my DH, the total premium is about $20k a year. We pay $2k a year of that. It's kick butt insurance though, top of the line. We pay almost nothing OOP. My DH's $600 a month medication? We pay $5. My $10k out patient surger in '08? I paid $30 in office visit co-pays. The most I ever paid was last summer, a screw up in my HR department resulted in me owing $1k for another $10k out-patient surgery. Fortunatly I had enough in my flex spend to cover it, so at least it was tax free.

 

[Forevryoung]

$491 a month for an individual. My employer contributes nothing. It's a very small business (less than 10 employees).

I pay 20/40 for copays and 15/35/75 for prescriptions.

Definitely eats up a large bit of my check every month!