Medical Insurance?

[Tom's Thumb]

I'm currently covered under my wife's policy where she works, but I think it might save money if I took out my own insurance.

What do you use? I'm looking for only basic catastrophic coverage. I can stay on her policy for dental and vision for about $1 month, or some such. I don't even need doctor office visits at this point.

Recommendations?

thanx

 

[NavyCop]

from what i understand it'll be cheaper for you to stay on your wifes insurance. think of that large premium she pays to have the insurance and then she pays a couple bucks to add you. If you leave and get your own insurance you will have to pay that initial premium again probably doubling what you currently spend on insurance.

*edit* Oh and I dont know what I use, its like pacific care or something, whatever the city offers. I just know its cheaper to add my wife to my policy then for her to get her own thru her work.

 

[inactive]

I'm currently covered under my wife's policy where she works, but I think it might save money if I took out my own insurance.

What do you use? I'm looking for only basic catastrophic coverage. I can stay on her policy for dental and vision for about $1 month, or some such. I don't even need doctor office visits at this point.

Recommendations?

thanx

I have a high deductible plan, and like it fairly well. You have (surprise!) a high deductible, usually around 2500 or 5000 bucks before they pay anything. They they cover at 80/20 in network until you reach the out of pocket max for the year (i.e 5,000 or 8,000 including what you paid of your deductible). Then they pay 100% until the next year, when it resets. So it functions similar to a PPO but you are out more money before it starts kicking in.

The advantages are the premiums are usually very reasonable compared to an HMO and PPO, and you qualify for a Health Savings Account (a PPO does not) which is income-tax free money so long as it is spent on qualified expenses (it is better than a Flex account as you can carry over balances from year to year, and it makes some pathetic interest ). Also, when paying the expenses before you meet your deductible, you get the negotiated insurance rate, which helps.

I have a plan through United provided by my employer, and while I won't rave about them I can't complain either. They have handled things well enough. Not sure who else offers them but I bet you can find some. I think Blue Cross offers them to the public, but am not certain.

When we dropped the HMO and went to this, the families complained as they are out more money on doctor's visits, routine prescriptions, etc.. (though the premiums are like less than half of the HMO). The younger single folk love it, as we called it "hit by bus insurance." It's good just in case of that catastrophic windfall event, but not so much if you have regular moderate expenses.

 

[inactive]

from what i understand it'll be cheaper for you to stay on your wifes insurance. think of that large premium she pays to have the insurance and then she pays a couple bucks to add you. If you leave and get your own insurance you will have to pay that initial premium again probably doubling what you currently spend on insurance.

*edit* Oh and I dont know what I use, its like pacific care or something, whatever the city offers. I just know its cheaper to add my wife to my policy then for her to get her own thru her work.

Some employers pay none of the costs to add dependents, only subsidizing the premium of the employee, and making you pay 100% of the dependents' premium. But yea, it may still be cheaper depending on who you work for, and the plans they have available. You just have to shop around.

 

[Werewolf]

Not mentioned is the risk factor.

Right now if your wife loses her job neither of you has med insurance. You can pay COBRA plan premiums but those can be well over $500/month.

Get your own from your employer. You're both covered and can stay covered if one of you becomes unemployed.

 

[vvvvvvv]

from what i understand it'll be cheaper for you to stay on your wifes insurance. think of that large premium she pays to have the insurance and then she pays a couple bucks to add you. If you leave and get your own insurance you will have to pay that initial premium again probably doubling what you currently spend on insurance.

*edit* Oh and I dont know what I use, its like pacific care or something, whatever the city offers. I just know its cheaper to add my wife to my policy then for her to get her own thru her work.

Not all employers do this, and I've personally only had one that did (Wal-Mart).

Anyway, the employer's insurance is typically a group policy. When I left the vo-tech, it would have cost me $500/mo to keep my insurance under COBRA (paying the full premium).

My wife's insurance could add me, but once again it's full premium on a group policy where I am well below average in age and well above in health. That would have been $250/mo.

I now have a better policy than both of those. I pay my insurance myself and pay just under $100/mo. (I added a Dental rider to bring my total for health and dental to $120. I have no vision issues, and eye emergencies and injuries are covered by my health insurance, so I had no need for an Vision rider.) I can actually afford the deductible ($1000) on that plan, too. I would have gone $500, but that would have been an extra $520/yr in premiums, which would mean that I would have come out behind.

 

[bettingpython]

Not mentioned is the risk factor.

Right now if your wife loses her job neither of you has med insurance. You can pay COBRA plan premiums but those can be well over $500/month.

Get your own from your employer. You're both covered and can stay covered if one of you becomes unemployed.

Loss of coverage if she loses her job is a qualifying event and he will not have to wait until the open enrollment period to join his employers group medical insurance.

If it's less expensive stay on the wifes plan stay there. My wifes employer subsidizes spouses and dependants where my employers insurance does not.

By switching myself and my son to my wifes policy we saved over $550 a month on what it was costing me to have him with me on my employers insurance, and I also receive a insurance stipend for providing alternate coverage because insurance is mandatory where we work, if you go on it as an employee in my classification it is paid for by the district, if you provide your own you get the district paid portion as a stipend.

Basically my stipend covers the premium increase her insurance charged for both of us to go on her policy and I no longer am paying 550 a month for my sons plan. Her employer doesn't offer vision so she and my son are on my vision plan which I kept and my son is on my dental plan which I kept

Win win.

 

[sigsilly]

See if you can fake being an illegal immigrant and your health care will be free.

 

[tm8634]

obama is taking care of this all, dont worry about it...

 

[glock girl]

When I graduated from college and got a real job it was significantly cheaper to take me off hubby's insurance and use my work's policy - I like my chiro visits and my work covers them 80/20 after my whopping $400 deductible and 2k max outta pocket cost. My rx plan has great coverage for what they cover, but there are some stupid exclusions. Insurance would apparently rather pay for a baby than preventative measures.



I honestly thought this was the norm - there weren't any initiation or startup fees or anything for my insurance, I just started paying premiums. Since adding the fam costs like double the employee, it just seems like it would almost always be cheaper for a couple to each have their own coverage as long as there aren't any dependents involved.