The state is unique. After 30 (or 90?) days the "freebie" enrollment in the state plan goes away, and any requests to join the BCBS state plan require a EOI form - no "open enrollment". From my research, this was the result of some admin change during the dubya governorship. It's a very not-cool thing.
Ah state employee, you should have mentioned that. State employees deal with a lot of junk that are illegal for other businesses. Edit: Apologize for correcting you. That little tidbit changes the entire equation. With normal employers however, that situation couldn't happen.
Funny thing about health insurance, it is usually (possibly always?) the same price for a family of 4 as it is for a family of 20.
There is no way your total cost could be $700/ month for medical, dental and vision for a family of 4. Unless you cover very little or the deductible is way up there. Your company is passing a lot of cost to the employees on the back end. Not much of an insurance at all.
I think Obama Care is a disaster; I knew that it would do little more than suck up money and raise premiums. However, I am a long time supporter of Public Health Care, the smart version which is too complicated to discuss here. The insurance companies are too rich and powerful to ever let that happen. When the AMA and AARP supported Obama Care I knew it was a joke. No public option, forget about it. When health care is a not for profit endeavor then you will have national health care.
Wow, my insurance (just for myself) is about 95 bucks a month. As long as I get care at my place of work, I don't pay anything out of pocket. That's probably the only benefit of working there, as the place sucks, otherwise.
I only support Obamacare because, I believe, it gets the ball rolling towards price controls and, hopefully, a single-payer system. Something needed to break the ice.
I'm sure the company is picking up a hefty chunk themselves. Why don't you pay his $700 for him? Are you cheap? I know my company covers our individual coverage only, which is about $400/month. I'd have to come out of pocket more than $700/month to go to a family policy.
I'm paying $93 a month for just two of us through work. I know the owner is paying a lot more than that because co-pay is either $25 or $30 including specialists with the normal $ for hospital stays and whatnot. I don't know specifics off the top of my head as I haven't been to a doctor in about 8 years. Before it was offered though we had private insurance, every 6 months it went up. At first it was in the $140/month range, then $180, then $210, then $260. All over the course of about 2 years, if it wasn't for my job we would be uninsured by now and making you people pay any possible health bills.
Obamacare was stupid. We should have had a public option and the democrats had a super majority to ram it through. Instead we have a stupid bill that will make people hate government healthcare more. The problem with healthcare is that there are no caps on it. We need to control spending on it.
Do you people have any idea how much does a good health care insurance cost for a family plan these days? I bet it is around 20k. So even if you pay around 7 or 8 k the company is paying a lot.
Depends on whether it is group or individual, but yes it is quite expensive. A cheap group policy for the first year of enrollments is around $300/month for an individual. Typical prices are about $500/month. It is usually slightly more than double to add a spouse. I have one client who's family plan is around $50,000 a year. I don't know what his plan entails, but every year I am absolutely shocked by the amount. That of course is highly unusual. Off the top of my head, I'd usually say family runs 15-20 thousand.
This is the new trend. My out of pocket expenses (if I actually have to use medical services next year) will skyrocket under my company's new plan. Not sure what triggered it. Maybe changes in the law or just skyrocketing health costs, but it's happening.
