T1B

Is it reasonable to have to pay $520/month for a husband, wife and child for health insurance?

A little background,I farm in Washington state for a living and have insurance through the same guy I buy car/farm insurance from.My cost with no dental and high deductibles is going to go up shortly from $185 to $202.($158 in 05 ,$138 in 04,165 in 03 with lower deductibles,$156 in 02,$131 in 01).

My wife and stepson get there health insurance through the company she works for.Her premium,with company paying 75% of the costs for her but not the child is going from $219 to $319.

Her company is getting ready to do there annual health insurance renewel.Employee with spouse and child on company plan stayed the same.Employee with spouse and multiple children went down in cost.Employee with multiple children stayed the same ,BUT EMPLOYEE WITH ONE CHILD WENT UP $100/MONTH!!!!

W.....T......F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

($17x12)+($100x12) =$1404 less money in my pocket per year.

You've got to sell the farm. You've GOT NO CHOICE!!!! DAMMIT RAY!!!

Trampis wrote:Is it reasonable to have to pay $520/month for a husband, wife and child for health insurance?

You're supporting both a husband and a wife? I thought you freaky assed "domestic partnerships" weren't recognized for insurance purposes.

Why don't you either get on her plan or get them on your plan?

Reasonable? No. Normal? Yep. Welcome to the "I'm getting fucked by managed care and my HMO" club. We finally got tired of our premiums going nowhere but up, so switched to a high deductible plan with an HSA. There's a bit of risk, if there's a catastrophic health situation, but the HSA is fully funded and will pay the deductible if needed. We saw our monthly premiums for a family of four go from over $300 to about $40. The HDHP covers the basics (well baby until age two, annual gyno for the wife) without meeting the deductible, and that's generally all we need, so the HSA just sits there collecting interest. You should check it out, especially if your family is reasonably healthy.

You might try restoring to a previous day.

I hear http://www.edmunds.com has some good deals on health insurance.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:You might try restoring to a previous day.

RACK!

Reasonable? No. Normal? Yep. Welcome to the "I'm getting fucked by managed care and my HMO" club. We finally got tired of our premiums going nowhere but up, so switched to a high deductible plan with an HSA. There's a bit of risk, if there's a catastrophic health situation, but the HSA is fully funded and will pay the deductible if needed. We saw our monthly premiums for a family of four go from over $300 to about $40. The HDHP covers the basics (well baby until age two, annual gyno for the wife) without meeting the deductible, and that's generally all we need, so the HSA just sits there collecting interest. You should check it out, especially if your family is reasonably healthy.

That's why the call it health insurance. I never had anything but an occasional doctor's appt for years and then I ripped up my ankle and had an osteochondroma on my right knee that was shredding a tendon. I needed three surgeries (two ankle, one knee) in two years. Had I been on the plan you describe at the time, I would have been completely fucked. Luckily for me, after the first surgery, where I had to pay a $200 copay, the company switched to a plan with $0 Outpatient Surgery copay, so I got the second two slice 'n dices done for free.

Trampis, see if you can sign up with one of those health insurance plans for the self-employed. They group together a bunch of s-e people to get lower rates than they could get by themselves. Also, I would imagine that there's some sort of plan out there that groups farmers together to get them a lower rate. Worth checking out, anyway.

Mikey wrote:Why don't you either get on her plan or get them on your plan?

If i was to go on her plan my part alone would be about $300 as there is no choice in what deductible you get. We're going to look today to see what it would be to add her and the kid to mine.

Amen OCMike.


There was a spell a few years ago wherein I had no insurance and it was cost prohibitive to get my own. Thank God for a family doctor who cut me a break here and there when I got some real bad allergies (getting old sucks) and a systemic poison ivy outbreak.


Anyway, today, the wife and I have insurance. It's a hassle, and just recently I bitched about the whole PPO referral thing but all in alll .....


I am one lucky mofo. MRI a few weeks ago, possibly surgery needed, etc.. etc... and out of my pocket is a scant 25 to 50 co-pay.



UNWAR MRI's.

I pay about $550 per month for a family plan (no dental) after my employer contribution of about $250/m. It sucks, but if you have a family you gotta do it.

OCmike wrote:Had I been on the plan you describe at the time, I would have been completely fucked.

If you were on the plan I'm on, you'd only be fucked if you were a complete and utter dumbass without enough foresight to see past your hood ornament. That's what the HSA is for. If the exact same thing happened to me today, I'd be on the hook for the $2,600 deductible, which I can either pay out of pocket, or from my HSA. After that, the HDHP picks up the tab. You might shy away from paying a high deductible like that, but in the long run, it's a huge savings. I can carry over my HSA balance from year to year, which means I don't need to keep contributing.

I said there was an element of risk for catastrophic medical costs, and if you have high recurring annual medical costs, it wouldn't be a good way to go. But if I'm ever in a situation where I can't meet the deductible, I can use the HSA to pay it. Not all HDHP's are the same, either. Mine pays 100% after I meet my deductible. I think there are others that only pay 80% or even less. At any rate, the first year, it wasn't much of a savings because we were funding the HSA. But the two years since have made up for it since we don't have to pay those high premiums that keep getting higher every year, and we've never had to use our HSA. It's not for everyone, but it's a good option for me and mine.