employee based health insurance

Melzombie

darwinstheory said:

I don't pay for insurance - includes dental and vision
$1000 out of pocket max
$50 ER visit (waived if admited)
$25 office visit co-pay 

That, is why we are willing to come out in droves to rally, or even strike to maintain what we already have. Very fortunate to have that. 

Curious how fortunate some other unions are with their insurance. 

Someone has to pay for it. so who does? through your union dues?
I think we have a couple of unions where I live, but not many. I don't know anyone in one.
I live in SC and the state as a whole is anti-union. One of the reasons why Boeing built a plant here. 
There was a whole controversy about them trying to unionize and I don't think they did because the majority of the people didn't want it.
I don't know much about unions, but aren't they mostly blue collar jobs? 

F Me In The Brain

Depends.  
Entertainment industry is full of unions to protect against the fucking vultures with money passing as studios 

MissPennyLane

My ex is in a union in the entertainment industry. Seemed like a sweet gig to me except constantly chasing work nonstop.

mace1229

Union dues wouldn't be enough. Typically the employer pays. The larger the company the better the bargaining chip when negotiating rates with insurance companies. Small businesses get screwed because they get horrible rates from providers, and often struggle to pay it.
A "company" like the LA county sheriff department with close to 20,000 employees will get a great rate and can cover most if not all of the premiums for their employees. A small school district with 500 employees will get a higher rate and pay more.
Currently I pay about $900/month for our family insurance my my employer pays about $1000. And on top of that we have deductibles and copays every time we see a doctor. It is a total scam. Most families would be better off putting that $23,000 we pay for premiums each year into an account and just paying cash every time they needed treatment for something. 
I dont have any statistics to back this up, but I'm guessing 95% of the population would be better off that way. How often do you think you would run up $23,000 in medical bills a year? Not often, especially if price gouging was illegal. The only reason insurance even seems like a good idea is because they price gouge and scare you into thinking a $300 exam would cost you $5000 if you didn't have insurance. It wouldn't most of the time.
Pricing is crazy, out of pocket for something like a CAT scan can range from $200 to $7,000, it is so ridiculous. 

F Me In The Brain

If they charged you the non negotiated rates it would not take much family care to end up north of that....which of fucked and why it is such a racket.  
Have some x-rays or an MRI done and check out what the starting point fees are.
So, so crazy.

mace1229

Yes but that non-negotiated rate is so fake. A lot of time the cash or uninsured price is less than the "negotiated" rate.

mace1229

Its there to scare you and make you think you saves thousands by having insurance. But you didn't in many cases.

mace1229

I ask about non insurance pricing all the time. Sometimes my co-pay for medicine is $60, but the cash price is only $20. So after paying nearly $2000 a month for insurance it is often cheaper to just pretend we don't have it. WTF?

vogonpoetbythelake

That's why I respect the Canadian model I know it is not the best but certainly a lot more humane than what I am reading here....even though i dont use the doctor or hospital very often...around 5 times in the last decade i know my community members do need to and i am happy to pay 75 dollars per month to subsidize the surgeries...emergencies etc.  even if I never had need...we all need to help each other by staying as healthy as possible...encouraging self care and caring for each other...

mace1229

You get screwed over the most in emergency situations. If you go to the ER and don't have time to plan ahead or something that is when you can get stuck with a $20,000 bill for a 1 night visit. But routine stuff or stuff you have time to plan, in my experience if you call a few hospitals it isn't too hard to find one that will give a cash price that is as good or better than those negotiated rates. Hospitals hate working with insurance anyway, even a small private doctor office has to hire a full time employee just to manage insurance bills. Who do you think ends up paying for that?

JOEJOEJOE

MissPennyLane said:

My ex is in a union in the entertainment industry. Seemed like a sweet gig to me except constantly chasing work nonstop.

Many of my clients are SAG members....they get sweet medical insurance for only $1,200/year.  The dues can be high, depending on how much you make.

Matts3221

Melzombie said:

this is obviously for those residing in the U.S.
I just started a new job a couple of months ago and just signed up for the health insurance plan.
Shit is expensive. I'm single, early 30's, healthy, non-smoker and was quoted $383 a month just for me and for medical insurance only (no dental or vision) 
My employer pays 50%. This means $191.50 comes out of my paycheck per month.
My deductible is $3,500 and I have to pay a doctors office copay of $40
This seems super high to me. I use to work for a larger corporate company and the insurance was better and less money. I got all three vision, dental, and medical for less than what I'm paying now for just medical. 
Is this a normal rate? How much do you pay? Anyone work in the health insurance field chime in? 
I think U.S. health insurance is all one big scam.

I hate to say this because man does our insurance complex sucks but 191.50 is not that bad at all for a small company. I have a friend whom pays 426 a month ( just her ) with a $5,000 dollar deductible before anything kicks in.

Health care has to change in this country.

mace1229

JOEJOEJOE said:

MissPennyLane said:

My ex is in a union in the entertainment industry. Seemed like a sweet gig to me except constantly chasing work nonstop.

Many of my clients are SAG members....they get sweet medical insurance for only $1,200/year.  The dues can be high, depending on how much you make.

Is that $1200 for a single person? Thats $100 a month, not too far from what I see a lot of employers offer for an individual plan.
My school goes from about $112/moth to $900 when switching from single to family.

F Me In The Brain

mace1229 said:

JOEJOEJOE said:

MissPennyLane said:

My ex is in a union in the entertainment industry. Seemed like a sweet gig to me except constantly chasing work nonstop.

Many of my clients are SAG members....they get sweet medical insurance for only $1,200/year.  The dues can be high, depending on how much you make.

Is that $1200 for a single person? Thats $100 a month, not too far from what I see a lot of employers offer for an individual plan.
My school goes from about $112/moth to $900 when switching from single to family.

The plan my wife has access to when she is "in-season" for entertainment work is ridiculous.  Covers everything, top shelf, and costs next to nothing relative to what we actually have to pay through my company. 

Some employers can afford to make this a benefit when they are a big company + make 900% profit on everything they do.  (That is probably way under-estimating it!)

Not sure about rates but family would be pretty cheap (relatively) -- but the issue is when they go on hiatus she would drop and then the family would drop. 

HesCalledDyer

Poncier said:

I'd love to pay $191.50 a month for health insurance. I pay twice that a week. So 8x that monthly (it is a family plan, not single, but still its a massive deduction)
Ever since Obamacare (actually Romneycare was the beginning of it all here in MA) was implemented, the premiums have about tripled in that time. And the benefits have been reduced, never had a deductible till past few years, now every plan has them. So on top of paying about 20K for the plan I have to pay the first $2,000.00 out of pocket for any expenses.
Worst government plan ever. Force everyone to have to carry insurance and allow for profit companies to control the cost with no oversight. 

I'm in the same boat as you.  At first I thought it was because I had a stroke and was hospitalized (which I am sure that contributes to the reason, but isn't the sole reason) but I am now more convinced that it's just the way current health care legislation is written that allows these billionaire insurance companies to keep draining the middle & lower class further to the ground.  I've worked for my company almost 18 years and never had a deductible until 2018.  I have never paid anything more than a copay for anything I've ever had done.  But now copays have gone up, prescriptions have gone up, coverage has gone down, and more things get refused than ever before.

Our entire government sucks.  Democrats and Republicans both.  No one cares about the people who elect them, they all just want to be rich while they make us poor or dead.

Gern Blansten

My new premium is $1453/month for me/wife/2 kids

Only a $7/month increase from last year though thanks to the ACA

darwinstheory

Melzombie said:

darwinstheory said:

I don't pay for insurance - includes dental and vision
$1000 out of pocket max
$50 ER visit (waived if admited)
$25 office visit co-pay 

That, is why we are willing to come out in droves to rally, or even strike to maintain what we already have. Very fortunate to have that. 

Curious how fortunate some other unions are with their insurance. 

Someone has to pay for it. so who does? through your union dues?
I think we have a couple of unions where I live, but not many. I don't know anyone in one.
I live in SC and the state as a whole is anti-union. One of the reasons why Boeing built a plant here. 
There was a whole controversy about them trying to unionize and I don't think they did because the majority of the people didn't want it.
I don't know much about unions, but aren't they mostly blue collar jobs? 

Our employer pays for it. When we are negotiating our union contracts, we bargain much harder to maintain the insurance we have rather than focus strictly on getting paid more money per hour. 

You can imagine my disdain when Pence decided to make Indiana become a right to work state. 

I think the common perception is that unions are mostly blue collar jobs. Generally speaking, that's mostly true. 

@f_me_in_the_brain - I hope everything gets better for the Mrs. That goes above and beyond our usual banter, brother.

F Me In The Brain

Thanks Man.  She is not in danger of losing life or anything ..it is a quality of life thing.  Easy for me to minimize but lots of people are in far worse condition.