Anyone else run into this with company provided health insurance

[RB TexLa]

Where the premiums charged for employees with individual coverage is raised and the permiums charged for employees with family coverage is lowered?

The company actually pays a higher percentage of an employees health insurance premium based on if they are covering children. And then to help offset the cost charge those who do not have children more. People say they have been told this is to help employees. How is it supposed to help the employees they are charging more money?

[leftofcool]

1. I believe this is going on with many companies. Our employer provided insurance is going up 23%

this year which is a family policy. Individual coverage in the same company is going up 35%.

[Bonhomme Richard]

7. What the hell else goes up 23% or 35% at one shot? Gas? Maybe.

Insurance companies do whatever the hell they want with no consequences.
Pisses me off to no end.

[limpyhobbler]

12. you can do that when you run the country.

[Skittles]

2. single people always get shafted

[doc03]

9. +1000

[YellowRubberDuckie]

28. Or people without kids.

I'm married, have no kids, and am made to feel like I'm somehow less than the people who have brought another mouth to feed into this already over stretched world.

[Skittles]

35. everyone is pressured to have kids

a substantial number of the people who have then should never have had any kids

[tammywammy]

3. I haven't heard of that

I have heard that where I work now, they base the employee pay part on what your salary is. So a lower paid employee and a higher paid employee both pay different amounts for the same plan. I pay less than my mom, and we're both individual plans, but I make much less than she does.

[RB TexLa]

5. I don't have a problem with that

But when percent of cost is being based on having or not having children. I just can't see it as being far to create classes of people based on that. And then tell one class they deserve and the other class doesn't deserve.

[hughee99]

4. I've noticed that coverage for 1 person is X

but coverage for two people is less than 2X. Coverage for 4 people is considerably less than 4X. I haven't noticed specifically with recent rate changes, but I haven't been looking that close.

[RB TexLa]

6. The "discount" for employee/spouse coverage was based on the legality of

only heterosexual marriage. So you had one male, cheaper to cover and one female more expensive to cover. So there was a lower rate than the rate charged to employees that was inflated for men and discounted for women to equal out for a genderless employee price.

[SheilaT]

8. Where I work the amount the

employee pays depends on how many persons that employee is covering. The more you cover (up to a family of four) the more you pay.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Employer based health insurance is just stupid for lots of reasons.

On the other hand I do not have a huge problem with cost shifting in favor of families.

[RB TexLa]

15. Really? Single people should have to over pay so they can underpay?

You think that is morally right?

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Yes I think it is morally fine.

Note of course that the actual sums paid by single employees are far lower than those paid by employees with family plans. The per capita rate is higher. You are paying less than your family plan fellow worker.

Imagine we extended Medicare to everyone. Would you be morally outraged if the per capita family rate was slightly lower than the individual rate?

[MattBaggins]

29. Are you a Republican?

They make the same argument about all taxes.

[RB TexLa]

30. I have never heard anyone say we should overtax single people so we can undertax people that are

married or have children.

Honestly, why would you think we deserve to have that done to us?

[MattBaggins]

31. Yes

Welcome to Society

[RB TexLa]

32. And what did sinlge childfree people do to deserve that?

[MattBaggins]

33. deserve?

How is discussion possible if you see yourself as a victim and healthcare premiums as a punishment?

What is the payment for an individual vs the payment for a family?

What are the numbers for the actual increase for each person?

[madville]

11. Ridiculous where I work at

$400 a month for individual coverage and $1100 a month for the family coverage. But hey they offer it, that's what matters right?

[limpyhobbler]

13. that is way too expensive.

[madville]

14. Soon we will all be required to buy it

Hope the mandate is thrown out, I don't want to be forced to buy anything like that!

[limpyhobbler]

16. What will happen if someone can't afford it?

With the mandates, does anybody know if there is going to be help paying?

There is probably going to be subsidies if you can prove you can't afford it.

But what happens if you can't afford it, but you aren't able to prove it?

Go to jail or what?

[Warren Stupidity]

18. "go to jail or what" - no they summarily execute you.

Please stop with the rw bullshit.

[limpyhobbler]

20. Sorry I think you misunderstood my question. What rw bullshit are you referring to?

I think you interpreted my question as taking a dig at the health care law, which I was not trying to do.

I am asking in all seriousness. If you can't afford to buy the health insurance what happens?

I assume there will be subsidies for people who can prove they can't afford it.

But some will be in a situation where they can't afford it because of other needed expenses, like extreme debt, old credit card debt, student loans, private debt, etc. And so they can't afford to pay for health insurance, but yet they are not poor enough on paper to qualify for assistance.

What happens to that guy? It's a real-life situation for some people, not a joke.

If you know the answer I'm listening.

I'm not looking for sarcasm.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. The rw bullshit that the gummint will put you in jail.

[limpyhobbler]

23. ok well I might have found the answer on wikipedia

If I'm understanding this correctly these are the maximum health premiums that go into effect in 2014.

So if a single person makes $30,000 / year, his max premium would be about $3000/year, or about $250/month.

I'm concerned this could drive some people into bankruptcy or lead them to default on their other debts.

In my view the subsidies are not good enough. I fear there is going to be a group of working class people who get screwed by this because they are not poor enough to qualify for help.

I'm not trying to debate. I'm trying to understand the health care law. Starting to be off topic for this thread. Maybe I should start a new thread later or something.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. You will be assessed a tax of around 700.

Yeah you really don't want to have health insurance. What could possibly go wrong?

[McCamy Taylor]

27. "Family" coverage for 2 on the "private market" was about $2k a month for my husband

and son. Because they had pre-existing conditions.

I pay about $500 a month now for family coverage at a huge organization which can get the discounts because of volume. So, sadly, what determines how much you pay, is how many people join with you in collective bargaining. Why do only employers get to "collective bargain"? Why can't the residents of an apartment building collective bargain?

[hobbit709]

21. Another of the problems of health INSURANCE when we should have health COVERAGE.

[RB TexLa]

24. Health insurance helps pay for health services, so it helps provide health coverage.

[hobbit709]

25. when they decide to approve it

when you can afford the deductible
when you can afford the copay
should i go on?

[RB TexLa]

26. I have to afford the deductable, I usually don't even touch the money in the HSA if I can help

it, I pay out of pocket so I don't lose the tax free growth.

[laundry_queen]

34. thinking like an insurance company

I wonder if they have studies that show that people with kids generally eat healthier, drink less and participate in less 'high risk' activities than single and/or married without kids.

Not saying I agree with it. Soon the insurance company will be asking for your shoe size because there *may* be a positive correlation with cancer and shoe size and then they'll charge you an extra 10% for every size you go up. (made that up, but it's getting that ridiculous). The whole health insurance industry is morally corrupt. It should be illegal to profit off of illness. ILLEGAL. blech.

[REP]

36. No; that's not it

In fact, my husband and I have our own coverage through different companies. At both, the single rate is lower than family. At most places, this is true - the example in the OP is not the norm.

[RB TexLa]

37. The person showed me what was happening. Single rates went up and family rates when up

Single went up 5% but what the employer charged went up 10%

Employee + spouse went up 8% what the employer charged went up 5%

Family coverage went up 10% what the employer charged went up 5%

The print out said this what done to help our employees.


I'm sure all the employees with individual coverage are still trying to figure out how this helped them.