Xebedee

If you've been living in the US for more than a month or so, the need for a change in the "health system" is probably pretty clear to you at least for the benefit of those who are needy.

I know its bad taste to talk personal money, but since this isn't the UK and its a forum media, anyone want to compare?

My OH's job provides the health insurance at the mo (we've swapped back and forth over the years, depending on which is better)

Her employer self-funds and it costs us $256 every 2 weeks.
Thats $6,656 out of our gross family income every year.

USBound

2 jobs ago, best we've seen and it was free (Activision)
last job, second best we've seen, $75 every 2 weeks
this job, not too bad, ~$100 every 2 weeks

Pharrya

I fork out for both me + the wife - seeing as I get the better deal. $91.55 for the pair of us every two weeks....

Mind you, we can take different levels - HMO, POS, PPO etc...

neil

My current job provides it for free for the family, or if you want to upgrade to the go-anywhere, see-anyone-you-want. whenever-you-want plan it's about $80 every two weeks (I think I got that right, it's either that or half that amount, whatever, it's not worth the extra anyway as far as I can tell). My last job it was free for the employee and then the employee paid half the additional cost for dependents which worked out at about $200 a fortnight.

Titchski

$658.00 a month for me and the missus. Thats before prescription costs and Dr visit co pays etc. with Mrs T's medications and Dr visits we're pushing 750.00 a month, so close on $9k a year. That doesn't include the medicare (can't use until 65) and medicaid (can't use unless I'm living in a double wide shopping trolley) taxes ofc.

My mates back home were stunned when I told them that getting sick is big business here. almost £5k a year without anything major happening is a big chunk of change from most peoples pockets...

SecretGarden

One of the most attractive aspects of my job and probably one of the main reasons I stay where I am:

$66 (up from only $45 in years past) every two weeks for myself, my husband, and my three children. Doesn't include co-pays ($15 a doctor visit) or prescriptions (generics are $15); emergency room visits are $75 (haven't had to use a lot of those, thank God); all care, tests and procedures including hospitalization are covered at 90% as long as you're "in network".

I feel pretty lucky after reading how hard most people have it.

~SecretGarden

Roland Hulme

This is about the same as me - $80 for both wifey and I every fortnight. We have a an EPO (or is it a PPO) that lets us go 'out of network.'

Duncan Roberts

It will be about $90 every 2 weeks for me and the wife. Get some good coverage, especially if we stay within the hospital system that the benefits come from. Still had to pay about $7000 between us in copays this year though. It's about another $15 a month total for dental (both of us) and vision (her only).

Xebedee

General question then, for those who seem to have either free or "affordable" health insurance premiums, do you get the sense that your salary/pay rate is supressed by the firm you work for in order to offset their part of the total premium.

Understanding that type of work and # of employees makes a diff in the company's rate/employee. Did that make sense?

I know when I go for a job, the question "so how much do you want?" can be fairly deflected by my response "well, its a question of the total compensation package" In other words, don't ask me until I have a full picture of the costs of working for you.
- Which is getting more and more affected by the health insurance part.

SecretGarden

[QUOTE=Xebedee;5631771]General question then, for those who seem to have either free or "affordable" health insurance premiums, do you get the sense that your salary/pay rate is supressed by the firm you work for in order to offset their part of the total premium.

Understanding that type of work and # of employees makes a diff in the company's rate/employee. Did that make sense?

QUOTE]


In my case, no. I'm a speech pathologist with a school district who is represented by a very stong teachers' union. Our salaries are determined by years of experience + degree + graduate hours past a Master's degree. I am working on my last two classes now which will put me at the top of the salary scale with Master's Degree + 40 additional graduate hours + 20 years experience.

In negotiating our contracts, the health insurance issue is always the key sticking point between the union and the board of education. When I started 20 years ago, "family" coverage was free to the employee, but in 20 years has only gone up to $66, so I do feel that I am lucky in comparison to most people. I forgot to mention that I pay no premiums at all for dental or vision, but the coverage for those is 80%.

so, short answer: no.

~SG

ugacrew

For me its about 50 bucks every two weeks. However it's offset by the fact that I don't have a copay for preventative care. By far the best insurance I've had ever since losing my military dependency status at the age of 23.

neil

No, I managed to get more than a 10% pay increase in addition to much better benefits overall in moving to this job.

Big D

free with no co-pay - but this is as part of an ex-pat package so not really a fair comparison!

tamms_1965

I pay $44 every 2 weeks for family PPO (Anthem). Copays are $15 and prescriptions can go up to $20 depending on if you mail in or not, etc. Dental is free and free life ($50,000). This covers my husband, myself, and 2 adult children in college. I work for a public school.

My daughter just had "minor" surgery that would have cost over $10,000 but we ended up paying less than $500.

The same exact coverage from his employer is $54 every 2 weeks, which is more than mine so we don't take advantage of it. Dental is also free for the family (so we have dual coverage) and so is a $30,000 life insurance policy. He works for the local city police.

Bob

Yup.

But then I pay $65 a month for the family plan and that includes dental...the company is paying $1500 a month on top of that for our HMO plan, which is half decent.

Where the missus used to work up in Maine, we were paying just under $100 to begin with for good HMO coverage, which after a couple years went up to $275 a month and covered pretty much nothing.