Insurance premium for 2011

[Deleted]

went up from a $22.50/weekly for a family plan to $46.50/weekly for the same plan. So basically it more than doubled yet I am still making the same amount of money

Dental remained the same $4.25/week

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Thank you Mr. Obama.

[zibazinski]

Yup, welcome to those who can pay who get stuck for those that won't.

[Deleted]

Feb 3, 2011 18:05:10 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

Thank you Mr. Obama.

Feb 3, 2011 18:06:35 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Yup, welcome to those who can pay who get stuck for those that won't.

That is a $1,248/annually increase that I could go without.
But hey, I have to carry Insurance

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Ouch.

[happyscooter]

Ours went up from $237.00 a month to $272. And it doesn't cover anything.

[bean29]

Like daphne I pay $170.97 per week and have a $2500 deductible. I also have no dental insurance.

If I lived in the same state as you, I would be applying for a job at your company.

[pepper112765]

Mine is 466.86 for family coverage, my employer pays for mine and subsidizes the family coverage in the amout of about 415.00. The $466.86 I pay. I also have dental through MetLife. My deductible is 1000/2000. I also have LTC which costs about 95.00 a month

And I don't know about anyone else but my health insurance premiums have gone up every year ... even before Obama got in office.

[Gardening Grandma]

And I don't know about anyone else but my health insurance premiums have gone up every year ... even before Obama got in office.

Same here. But I'm sure that was Obama's fault as well....

[telephus44]

We were lucky in that ours went from $109/bi-weekly to $125/bi-weekly. The deductible is 500/1000. I realize that is an incredibly good deal compared to most.

[phil5185]

went up from a $22.50/weekly for a family plan to $46.50/weekly for the same plan.

LOL - I have the opposite response when that happens to us.

You are now paying $2418 for about $8000 worth of care - ie, your employer is paying over $6000 for you. ($8000 is about the average cost of medical care in the US, plus the insurance company needs some OH to pay their people).

So when I get that official letter each yr that says that my part of the premium is increasing by 10% or 15%, I am thankful that my employer didn't say "we are hereby turning the whole $8000 over to our employees".

[greeneyedchicka]

Mine is $125 bi-weekly as well. It stayed the same this year, but went up last year. The kicker was that the premium went up, but our coverage went down. I have a $500 deductible, which I didn't have before and am now covered at 90% - copay for most things instead of 100% - copay like last year. I pay $25 bi-weekly for dental. Vision is covered under medical.

[stillontheroad]

went up from a $22.50/weekly for a family plan to $46.50/weekly for the same plan.

cawiau, I take it your employer does the same as mine - only offers employee-only or employee plus family, no employee plus spouse? Not only are we subsidizing the portion of the general population that can't or won't buy insurance, but we're also subsidizing our coworkers who have a couple of kids at home and use more health care than we do.

I can't complain about what I pay for my insurance and what is covered, but it always annoys me that I'm paying the same amount of money as my coworkers with a spouse and 2-3 kids when it's just my wife and I on our plan.

[Cookies Galore]

Feb 4, 2011 11:12:25 GMT -5 pepper112765 said:

And I don't know about anyone else but my health insurance premiums have gone up every year ... even before Obama got in office.

Same here, but it's supposed to be a secret!

My insurance now costs me $70/month for great coverage (it was $59 last year) . Dental is still $0 (I opt for the basic plan).

I got a small raise for 2011 (3%), so my monthly take home has increased by $82, obviously the SS reduction has helped my wine budget, I mean, bottom line.

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2011 12:19:28 GMT -5 @stillontheroad said:

cawiau, I take it your employer does the same as mine - only offers employee-only or employee plus family, no employee plus spouse? Not only are we subsidizing the portion of the general population that can't or won't buy insurance, but we're also subsidizing our coworkers who have a couple of kids at home and use more health care than we do..

Yes that is the plan we have.
Employee only or employee with family... no employee with spouse.

[zibazinski]

Doesn't she work? Why doesn't she have insurance where she works?

[Deleted]

Feb 4, 2011 15:08:34 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Doesn't she work? Why doesn't she have insurance where she works?

She started working last september and by that time I already had her on my insurance.

Her company has the same insurance carrier as mine (MVP), so we decided to just leave it as it was.

[8 Bit WWBG]

Don't injure yourself building those back muscles then... I bet those accidents aren't covered.

[Cookies Galore]

Feb 4, 2011 14:36:18 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Feb 4, 2011 12:19:28 GMT -5 @stillontheroad said:

cawiau, I take it your employer does the same as mine - only offers employee-only or employee plus family, no employee plus spouse? Not only are we subsidizing the portion of the general population that can't or won't buy insurance, but we're also subsidizing our coworkers who have a couple of kids at home and use more health care than we do..

Yes that is the plan we have.
Employee only or employee with family... no employee with spouse.

Bummer. We have employee, employee and child, employee and children, employee and spouse/domestic partner, and employee with spouse/domestic partner and child(ren)

[ugga81]

My husband and I are both federal employees. There is no employee+spouse coverage. So we found it cheaper to both pay for our own policy than to go for the family plan. If we ever decide to have kids... then we'd probably both go on the same policy.

We're lucky though, I think mine went from $46 to $52 bi-weekly. Added dental for just me for $16 bi-weekly and vision for employee+spouse is around $9. I feel pretty lucky.

[schildi]

Our monthly premium for a family of 4 went from $0 to $0.
Definitely Obamas fault!

We do have an annual $3,000 out of pocket for the family, and a $5K out of pocket max. Preventive care is covered 100%, so if we only go for annual visits, our cost is zero. (except that it's more or less my money anyway that they company spends on healthcare, as part of the benefits).

[schildi]

Feb 4, 2011 11:33:14 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

You are now paying $2418 for about $8000 worth of care - ie, your employer is paying over $6000 for you. ($8000 is about the average cost of medical care in the US, plus the insurance company needs some OH to pay their people).

Is that $8,000 for family coverage or individual? Where did you get that number from?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

She started working last september and by that time I already had her on my insurance.

Her company has the same insurance carrier as mine (MVP), so we decided to just leave it as it was.

You'd likely be doing better to let your wife get her own policy on her own employment. Most times, the employer covers most of the employee's health premium and a lesser percentage of the dependent's policy. So it's likely that her insurance premium may be paid almost 100% by her employer and there'd be nothing out of pocket for you.

[phil5185]

Is that $8,000 for family coverage or individual? Where did you get that number from?

Health care costs have been rising for several years. Expenditures in the United States on health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three ...
www.kaiseredu.org/Issue.../US...Care-Costs/Background-Brief.aspx - Cached

Divide the $2.3T by the 300M population and you get $7667/person. Don't know but I'll guess that it is skewed toward the elderly and away from children and young adults - so a 'standard' family of 4 probably costs less than $7667 x 4. And an elderly couple probably costs more than $7667 X 2.

Our medical care costs $7667 each - it probably costs us an extra $500 or $1000 to hire an insurance company to socialize the risks so that no one person gets stuck w/ a $500,000 cancer bill. So maybe pay we $8667 to an insurance company so that they can pay our $7667 bill, pay their people, and spread our risk?

[stantonjane]

My monthly premium for Blue Shield HMO family plan (anyone faint of heart, cover your eyes here):

$1475 a month. yes, that's right. $1475 a month. Minus the $800 credit we receive from our local govt employer, we still pay $675 a month out of pocket, and that's before any dental insurance, vision plans, and LTD deductions.

Last year the cost was $1265 (about), we got a 17% increase this year. I almost almost changed over to Kaiser, which would be $200 less, but figured for the fact I might not be working longer than another year or two, it wasn't worth the trouble to change our primary doctors, etc.

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2011 1:10:39 GMT -5 @chef241 said:

We pay $1600/month for two people. Monthly premiums for health insurance are more than our mortgage and car payments!

ouch... now I feel like a douche bag for complaining about my 225/month premium

[TD2K]

I got an EOB today for some lab work that was done.

Billed amount was $1,367. Discount through my insurance company was $1,247.96. That's right, just over a 90% discount.

[TD2K]

How is someone without insurance supposed to handle something like that?

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2011 2:12:28 GMT -5 TD2K said:

I got an EOB today for some lab work that was done.

Billed amount was $1,367. Discount through my insurance company was $1,247.96. That's right, just over a 90% discount.

I love getting those statements because I ask myself the same question:

How can someone without insurance afford all this? Even worse if you have some type of illness that requires constant medical insurance

[schildi]

Feb 5, 2011 2:12:28 GMT -5 TD2K said:

I got an EOB today for some lab work that was done.

Billed amount was $1,367. Discount through my insurance company was $1,247.96. That's right, just over a 90% discount.

I have seen similar things, like $230 discounts on $250 bills. It always seems to be lab work where they bill these insane amounts. For doctors visits, I see more like 20-25% discounts, and the ER was like 30 or 40% last year, if I remember correctly.