how much do you pay for health insurance?

[A4Disney]

$300 a month through my husband's employer(health/dental/vision)Blue Cross Blue Shield
I am a stay at home mom and we have four kids.
$15 copay for well visits
$25 for specialists
No deductible
He has worked for this company 12 years and we've been very happy with the insurance.

 

[Heidijs]

My DH is retired from the phone company and we pay nothing for health insurance or dental insurance. We pay a $15 copay for doctor visits (regular and specialist), $15 to go to an Urgent Care Facility and $25 to go to an ER.

So that's why my phone bill keeps going up!

 

[EnchantedPrincess]

My dh's employer pays for his insurance, and he pays about $400 a month to include me, and our two kids. It's a Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO plan with a $30 co-pay for dr's visit, and $35 co-pay for specialist. We have pretty low deductible compared to some others - $250 individual or $750 family, and our out-of-pocket maximum is $1750 individual per plan year, or $5750 for the family. Unlimited lifetime maximum benefit...and upon retirement (as long as he has been employed there for 25 yrs) both him and his spouse will get free lifetime medical insurance.

 

[Enchanted_Mama]

I'm not sure what the overall cost is, only what I pay for (my employer covers a lot).

I pay $1950 a year to cover our family. We have $10 copay for visits. Prescriptions range from free (generic) to $15. ER is $50 copay, then 100% coverage. I'm not certain of the details of the rest of the coverage except that everything I've had done (from birth of a child to cat scan to dermotological procedures) have all been covered 100% (after the $10 copay).

Our vision plan is included in this, too. A $10 copay allows us a full exam and new pair of glasses (free, up to a certain price point) every two years.

Dental is separate, and IMO, not as good. I pay $750 a year for family coverage. Cleanings and fillings are covered 100% w/no copay, but anything more substantial is only covered 80%. And, there are very few dentists to choose from in the plan.

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

0 for a family of 4.

Dh is in the military. We have a child who was born with a severe birth defect and has required several heart procedures including open heart surgery. The military covered everything, even our gas and hotel room (we had to go to another city for the surgery) and food. I received bills totaling over $500K for my son and we didn't pay anything. Prescriptions are also at no cost to us either.

It's the reason my dh stayed in the military. We could not get anyone to insure ds on the "outside." The closest we got was an insurance company saying that they would cover ds but not his heart. Dh said forget and decided to make a career out of the military instead. This way we can make our son a life long dependent if need be in the future.

Some of these numbers I'm reading are terrifying!

 

[Tisha_PA]

Wow - I'm in shock over how much everyone pays. I work at a hospital and DH is self employed so we have our insurance through me. I pay $35 a pay (every 2 weeks) for family coverage (includes 6 of us) that includes health, prescription, vision and dental. We have Highmark PPO and our doctor copays are $20 and prescription co-pays are either $4 or $10 depending on what drug it is. That's it - we have no copays or co-insurance for hospital bills or lab work or anything else. Dental and vision are also covered 100%. Our dental also covers braces up to $3K. I don't think I realized how good I had it until I read all of your posts.

 

[HsvTeacher]

My DH and I pay nothing for health insurance. We both work for a school system, so we are able to combine our allocations. (We do not have kids.) We have BCBS, and it's an excellent plan:

$20 co-pay for doctor visits
100% coverage on hospital stays
$50 co-pay for ER visits
$5 generic prescriptions
$30 brand name prescriptions

We are truly blessed!

 

[Lovin' Disney]

This year I have started paying for my own insurance (my husband's company charges an additional biweekly fee for spousal coverage) and I cover our 2 children as well. I work at a retail store and pay about $43 every 2 weeks for coverage for the 3 of us. That is just medical. They don't offer dental or vision unless you're full time and I'm not. I think the OOP is $3000 per family.

Yes, I could just save $50 a pay period, put it in an account, and use it in an emergency. But what if they (or I) get really sick??? Then we're in trouble. My son was born 7 weeks premature, spent 3 1/2 weeks in the NICU, and our bill was about $35,000. Luckily, we had BCBS at the time and they covered almost the entire bill. You just never know what might happen.

 

[deerhart]

I'd be careful with that. A normal, healthy pregnancy and delivery isn't too bad $$$ wise, but if you have a high risk pregnancy and/or have a complicated labor and/or recovery, it can get VERY expensive, VERY fast. There is a reason marternity coverage on insurance is so expensive! And unfortunatly, you won't know what kind of pregnancy you'll have until it's too late to get coverage.

Yeah that is what I thought as well.. all doc visits, labor, delivery, etc less then 10k total. Fast forward to week 24, being in the doc office/hospital every 3 days, lab draws 1-2x's a week, induction, full ups.. my hospital bill for the delivery was almost 30k (babies was 15k) and that was BEFORE then like 50k my doc billed and not even including all the lab work (at $500.00 per draw), 4 ultrasounds, 15+ NST's. So almost 100k for my oldest. My second child (little less bedrest) was even more expensive due to him spending 4 days in NICU (so his hospital bill was like 80k, mine was about 30k again)

 

[deerhart]

We pay about $75/wk for family coverage. We have a $2500.00 individual deductible, $5000 family max. We also get a HSA account with $1,000 in it each year (and it rolls over). We also use an FSA account (which we have to use up).

Our coverage includes chiropractor, mental health, etc. Routine health exams are covered 100% (even before we meet our deductible as well as routine tests and the children's vaccinations.

5 years ago, we paid less, had NO deductible, and about the same co-pays *sigh miss those days*.

Thankfully, we have had little to no impact on us and out of pocket costs. The vast majority of out of pocket costs are prescriptions and those are still covered before deductible (and I pay through FSA/HSA accounts)

 

[POOHLUV69]

I pay $55.00 every 2 weeks for coverage for a family of 4, including dental and vision. We have a high deductible HSA w/a 5200 family coinsurance max. My employer puts in $600.00 at the beginning of the year and a set amount comes out of my paycheck every month and deposited in the HSA all of which rolls over year to year. All preventative visits as well as any of the kids vacinations are covered at 100%. We have no copays. All dental visits are covered w/no copays as well. I only had to pay $672.00 for DD braces. We have a $200.00 eyewear reimbursement every 2 years and 1 routine eye visit covered at 100%. I know we have prescription coverage, but I'm not sure of the % we pay since we don't get prescriptions very often.

 

[4forMe]

DH owns a business and I'm a SAHM so we have private family insurance. Our plan costs $16,000 per year plus we have to meet a dedutible of $1500 before they cover 80% of our charges for visits and prescriptions.

We could have a cheaper plan by going to an HMO but choose not to. I have medical issues and my son had to see a pediatric neurologist last year. We don't have to go through a "gatekeeper" by having a PPO and get in much more quickly for appointments.

DH looked into getting insurance for his small business but it was too cost prohibitive. Also, most of his employees didn't want it since they are fully covered by their spouses' plans and they didn't want extra money coming out of their check. The horrible thing about the private policy is they up your premiums whenever they feel like it. I am hoping to go back to work in the next couple of years just for the health insurance.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

We pay only $50 month which includes:
medical
dental
vision
extra disability
life insurance for him and me

I cannot imagine having to pay $15,000 a year.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We pay $197 a month now for insurance through Tricare, it's a special plan for National Guard members. It's for medical only, we have dental and vision through Dh's employer, approximately $60 a month for those. Those are for a family of 7. I'm a little disappointed with the premiums we pay since Dh's Guard pay pretty much just covers it with about $50 left over.

And a small rant, when I tried to use a coupon for transfer a prescription at a local drug store they told me they couldn't do it because we had a "government" plan.

I don't pay a copay for regular visits. Our deductible is $1500, I think. I know I should pay more attention. It offered slightly better benefits than the plans offered through Dh's job for the same price.

I am really happy with our vision plan, it's a great deal since I wear contacts which it covers and DH and two DS's wear glasses. We pay $15 for each exam and $15 for glasses that cost up to $120, anything over $120 we pay the difference.

 

[Swimalie]

I get it through my husband's work. I believe we pay $210 per pay check (so x26 for the yearly cost) and it covers my husband, son and myself. The medical is good, the dental sucks (they only cover $17 of an exam and nothing on root canals and crowns, etc). Very little eye coverage. Our deductible is $300 per person and $1000 per family. Co-payments are $20 per visit. Prescription coverage was good but lately its gotten to be less and less and I'm on a thyroid medication so I have meds I have to take.

 

[avahoneybee]

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.

This is exactly what we pay. I wish it weren't so high, but it is.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

I pay $194 per month for a Blue Cross PPO for DH and myself. No deductable, $20 doctor visits, and 3 months prescriptions are $10, $20 and $40. ER is $50 and hospitalization is covered 100%. Last month I had a bunch of MRI's done and didn't even need a refereral! Now THAT shocked me!

 

[3boymthr]

Okay folks, so here are the norms:

http://ehbs.kff.org/

This survey is done every year.

Happy reading. It'll either make you feel really good or really bad about your plan.

 

[Piecey]

Our insurance is through DH.

He pays $84.13 pre-tax per paycheck for all of us. It's the family rate and we won't pay any extra to add the new baby.

No co-pays for well-child, annual visits for women, etc.
$10 co-pay for regular doctor visit, $20 for specialists.
Our family deductible is $700 and then everything is paid 85/15.

Complete maternity care and delivery is covered at 100% (phew!)
Prescriptions are $5.

It also includes dental and vision.
$5 co-pay for eye exam and they pay 2 teeth cleanings/year at 100%

 

[disney1990]

So that's why my phone bill keeps going up!

That is why union due keep going up; and salaries don't.

Wow - I'm in shock over how much everyone pays. I work at a hospital and DH is self employed so we have our insurance through me. I pay $35 a pay (every 2 weeks) for family coverage (includes 6 of us) that includes health, prescription, vision and dental. We have Highmark PPO and our doctor copays are $20 and prescription co-pays are either $4 or $10 depending on what drug it is. That's it - we have no copays or co-insurance for hospital bills or lab work or anything else. Dental and vision are also covered 100%. Our dental also covers braces up to $3K. I don't think I realized how good I had it until I read all of your posts.

And this is why going to the hospital is so expensive.