Do you have health insurance?

yeah, I didn't think employer's were obligated at all to give you the money that they would be spending on you to cover health insurance if you chose not to take it.

Cutlery_sl said:

You're just not getting it. I'm telling you that I have worked for exactly 1 company who paid out money that they would have otherwise spent on health benefits if you didn't take said benefits.

My wife gets health insurance as part of her package too, we don't use it, and we're not signed up for it because mine is flat out better. She doesn't make any more money than the person in the cube next to her because she's not. If we used hers instead of mine, I wouldn't get paid the difference either.

I'm telling you that you're full of shit, and it doesn't work that way in the real world. I completely understand your argument and the way it SHOULD work, but it doesn't.

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You are a moron. In the long run, yes your wages would reach equilibrium. When the company looks at hiring employees it will look at their total cost, it doesn't care how the components of that cost are broken out (unless you design a system that creates advantages to one component over another).

The reason individuals don't see a difference in pay between taking or not taking the health plan is simply because that would create extra costs in order to manage. You are no special snowflake, the company will just find another to fill the ranks. If instituted in a systematic manner though, there would most undoubtedly be positive pressure on wages; probably getting back to full equilibrium within 5 years.

I'm 28 and I don't have health insurance and it sucks. I rarely get sick and when I do I can just wing it. I was planning on getting a job with benefits once I was finished with school. That was the plan. However last week I slipped on a patch of ice on a deck and fractured my clavicle. I tried to walk it off for a couple of days but had to give in on the third day and go to the ER for X-Rays and to see a doctor. They sent me to a shoulder specialist yesterday and I had to get some more X-Rays. Turns out the new X-Rays reveal that my situation has gotten worse since Sunday. The bone has continued to move out of place even though I've been wearing this dumb ass sling my every waking hour. So now I have to go back to the orthopedic doctor again next Wednesday for more X-Rays. I had to borrow $150 just so the doc would see me. If it continues to get worse I'll have to have surgery which will be in the range of $11-15k. If I need surgery and can't get it because of my financial situation then I'm going to have limited mobility with my left arm for life. I just transitioned out of graduate school and I've been looking for a job, but no luck thus far. Seems it will be even harder to find something with a gimp ass arm. Not to mention that I'm left handed and this is my left arm I'm talking about. Take it from me, being broke and uninsured sure does suck.

i have BCBS and was charged over a grand for an emergency visit and an xray. the healthcare system in the u.s. is absurd.

Currently uninsured thanks to the retarded way health insurance works at my university. I pay for insurance every semester but on long breaks, like right now, last semester's insurance expires on the 31st and I won't get coverage again until Monday at the earliest when the new semester's insurance charge gets put on my account.

My university only offered some kind of insurance where if you got injured on the property of the college you'd be covered. Outside of that you were fucked. I had it my first year and it didn't even include the flu and stuff like that.

@walnut....

switched to my husbands health insurance 1 Jan - to Aetna (Open Choice POS) (PPO). I had BCBS previously.

Had my first trimester screen yesterday (which would have been the first appointment of the year and therefore first notification of pregnancy to Aetna) - I get a call last nite from Aetna (which was annoying for several reasons before I even get to the question but wtfever) about some 'free program' available to expectant moms where you answer questions and they 'come up with a plan of care based on risks' blah blah blah.

Here's what I heard: "We'd love to ask you some questions to be able to set you up to deny treatments YOUR DOCTOR (you know, the person with medical training who is actually seeing me) wants to pursue down the line. Its totally free to you of course because its a way of us trying to save ourselves money."

I told them no thanks.

Do you know anything about this?

I work for the University of California system and I must say my insurance is pretty goddamn good for $23.50 a month. Co-pay fees are really low on medical stuff (150 for surgery or prolonged stay type visits) and dental is hilariously cheap compared to being uninsured. like 1/6th the price with minimal copays type cheap. Vision isn't completely free but I don't pay into it really so I can't complain too much. $300 frames, $120 lenses and a $200 comprehensive eye exam? Cost me $70 out of pocket.

Really, I have no complaints for the coverage I get at the cost I pay per month.

Eyashusa_sl said:

yeah, I didn't think employer's were obligated at all to give you the money that they would be spending on you to cover health insurance if you chose not to take it.

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They aren't but my particular employer does offer an 'opt out' pay out. A lot of our employees are vets so medical benefits aren't really something that make them competitive over other employers in a lot of cases so they offer the opt out pay as a benefit instead.

The nice part is that when my husband and I looked at converting to a family plan this year his was not only cheaper with better coverage but I got to take the opt out on top of that.

Etoille: we had Aetna, just switched to BCBS through work. When my wife had her initial round of bloodwork done... where they take like 10 vials of blood to test for like 20 kinds of diseases (my wife's words, I'm sure it wasn't that many vials)... they sent us information about their preferred lab to send bloodwork to... AFTER they sent us the $1100 bill. So... thanks I guess?

We also decided to switch to HMO... all our doctors are in network and its much cheaper in the long run as long as we play by the rules.

my wife's open enrollment is in March so we may be switching to her at that point but who knows.

Eyashusa_sl said:

Etoille: we had Aetna, just switched to BCBS through work. When my wife had her initial round of bloodwork done... where they take like 10 vials of blood to test for like 20 kinds of diseases (my wife's words, I'm sure it wasn't that many vials)... they sent us information about their preferred lab to send bloodwork to... AFTER they sent us the $1100 bill. So... thanks I guess?

We also decided to switch to HMO... all our doctors are in network and its much cheaper in the long run as long as we play by the rules.

my wife's open enrollment is in March so we may be switching to her at that point but who knows.

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Ugh. I just got the EOB for that same appt (This was obviously while I was still with BCBS back on 12/18 - its 4-5 vials - its the test where they test her to see if she's a carrier for things like CF and other stuff) - was 964 dollars but I didn't owe anyone a dime because I guess the lab was in network (that really sucks balls that your OB/Gyne didn't check that shit before they sent that out - I'd ask them why the fuck they don't check for that sort of thing...its not like they rarely work with BCBS). I hate having to get referrals (the time alone is enough of a deterrent) so I prefer PPO's but my employer pays 100% of the HMO premiums so I did have that for a year or two prior to switching to the PPO.

Thats weird that your open enrollment is in march - I thought they were all with 1 Jan start dates - if you switch to hers and you're on a 1 Jan start does that mean that you'll be covered under (and paying for) 2 plans for yourself for any overlapping period?

We're going to keep an excel doc to track out of pocket expenses for the year so we can see where we're at vis a vis the OOP max since we pretty much expect to hit it this year and want to keep the insurance company honest (lol). Very happy that the pregnancy for the most part wont be bifurcated over two years. Only paid 30 bucks in 2012 under BCBS; everything else will be in 2013 including baby's first 5-6 months (who will be covered under the family plan etc) so that timing worked out rather well.