How much do you pay for health insurance

[cjolley]

A large part of the law is based on ideas from the political right.
I wonder what a post-Obama health care fix would look like from the political right.


PS, to answer the original question $250/month. Coverage much like Doc M described.
What's interesting is that my employer is self insured, so I get to see what everything actually costs in our statements.

[Jammrock]

It still doesn't make any sense.
WHY would they drop an employee's coverage if they haven't already?
It will cost companies more to drop employees after the law goes in to effect than it does right now.

What exactly is the new incentive to not cover employees?

A lot of smaller, and even bigger, companies have dropped their level of insurance. It happened to be a couple of times a couple of jobs ago. It's expensive to insure 50000+ employees.

Health benefits are no required by law, you are correct. They are used as incentive to attract talent, which is why your larger companies, Microsfot, Google, Apple, etc., offer full coverage with no or few co-pays.

What the health care bill does is tax those employers who have high levels of coverage for their employees. If said company were to maintain the high level of insurance they would be taxed 40% of their costs over a certain level to provide the same level of insurance.

In order to keep the talent, and provide the best care possible without eating a 40% tax, companies are dropping the amount of coverage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act#Summary_of_funding

You will also notice the higher fee on providers, which gets passed down to the insuree via higher rates for equal or lesser care. Higher tariffs and taxes on drug makers, another cost that will get passed down to insuree's.

The new, cheaper, crappier plans go into effect 1 Jan 2013 at my workplace.

[cjolley]

Jammrock, did you read the Snopes article I pointed to?
Everything you seem to think about the tax on "Cadillac" coverage is wrong.

1, The date it starts.
2, What the 40% applies to.
3, How much coverage it takes to trigger it.

Your information about those things is just wrong.
The relevant part:

...That would be $27,500 a year for a family, starting in 2018. The tax on a $29,500 plan would be $800, or 40 percent of $2,000. The insurance company would pay the tax but would almost certainly pass it along to the employer and its employees.

That $27,500 threshold is well above the current average of $13,400 for a family plan. By 2016, more than 80 percent of all family plans are projected to still fall below the threshold.
...

I don't know why your employer is screwing you over next year.
But Obamacare isn't it.


PS here is from the Wikipedia article you sited:

Effective by 2018

• All existing health insurance plans must cover approved preventive care and checkups without co-payment.[39]
• A new 40% excise tax on high cost ("Cadillac") insurance plans is introduced. The tax (as amended by the reconciliation bill)[111] is on the cost of coverage in excess of $27,500 (family coverage) and $10,200 (individual coverage), and it is increased to $30,950 (family) and $11,850 (individual) for retirees and employees in high risk professions. The dollar thresholds are indexed with inflation; employers with higher costs on account of the age or gender demographics of their employees may value their coverage using the age and gender demographics of a national risk pool.[74][112]

[Umfriend]

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[Umfriend]

I think we pay around EUR120 month fixed and an incomedependent part but that rises up to a certain income (I think about 30K/annum) so for me is another EUR 208 (paid by the employer which in this case is myself), so around 4K per annum. We also pay the first EUR 250 per annum co-pay or so.

For that 4.25K I am covered for, I think, virtually everything (even therapy to cure me of my gay-ishness which is zero but anyway that'll stop soon (it being paid for that is)) except dental.

Kids are free until 18, including dental.

[cjolley]

Bartender! I'll have what Umfriend is having.

[UtwigMU]

Great, so in NL it's capped to about 30k, here it's uncapped so high paid professionals pay loads of money. There has been a recent comparison of salaries between Austria and Slovenia and all salaries above 15k annually are taxed less in Austria than here (average annual salary being about 12k here and in 20k in Austria) - listed in Euros. Some business and workers are relocating to Austria, which has record low unemployment - lowest in EU.

Doc, Jammrock: It's funny to see same pattern in US as here. Socialists instead of making things better for less privileged prefer to **** things up for those who are doing better (mainly doing better as a result of their work not their wealth). Recently some customers who run on-line news portal were submitting questions to political parties before elections on daily basis. I contributed some of the questions. Most political parties thought it is fine that some pay more for the same health service and that it is a foundation of solidarity and that such state of affairs is great.

Instead of giving cows to poor they kill some cows of the rich to make everyone more equal.

[Umfriend]

LOL! So I checked to be sure and I missed something, there is another (capped) income dependent contribution that is collected by the IRS. The total for me, excluding dental, is EUR 8.3K or approx. USD 10.8K. There are som co-pays but these are small.

Of course, if there is a healthcare budget deficit (I guess there always is) that is paid for out of taxes so, yes, ultimately my contribution will likely be a bit higher. We have a marginal income tax bracket of 52% here and that starts at about EUR56K. I do not mind that at all actually. I just wish there was a lot less waste.

[Jammrock]

Don't really care when the law says it takes effect, my premium insurance goes away next year regardless because of whatever was put in the bill. Defend it and it's authors all you want, but they won't get my vot in the fall because of it.

[cjolley]

Don't really care when the law says it takes effect, my premium insurance goes away next year regardless because of whatever was put in the bill...

That's a pretty interesting thought process.
Would they have gotten your vote otherwise?


PS I had no idea the SeattlePi had clairvoyance. They knew about this in 2004!

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Microsoft-trims-benefits-to-cut-costs-1145190.php

...
An employee survey conducted for Microsoft last year by consulting firm Towers Perrin asked if employees were generally "willing to share in health care costs" through increased deductibles, co-payments or higher payroll contributions. Courtney cited the survey as evidence that the company has been contemplating broader changes
....

[Elie]

Three operations later, two hernia and one lower back (which was major) and I didn't pay a cent, and I don't have insurance! Love my country's health care system

I think Obama is trying to create a health care system to meet the needs for all American's.
There are millions who cannot afford to go to the doctor for a checkup without getting hit with hundreds of dollars. My girlfriend (who is American) tells me horror stories and I just cringe.

If people just open their minds and think of how the US can make health care better for everyone without paying massive insurance bills only to receive a small percentage of that when they put a claim in.

[cjolley]

Three operations later, two hernia and one lower back (which was major) and I didn't may a cent, and I don't have insurance! Love my country's health care system

a, Liar! I read NewsMax, I know what the truth is.
b, You're just a bunch of hippies up there anyway, so who cares what you think.

[Elie]

a, Liar! I read NewsMax, I know what the truth is.
b, You're just a bunch of hippies up there anyway, so who cares what you think.

Sorry for calling it the way it is, wish you the best of luck dude.

[cjolley]

I thought what I said was so over the top that it didn't need a winky.
Seems I was wrong. Which is a little scary.
But, no offence intended. Here is the missing wink

[Jammrock]

That's a pretty interesting thought process.
Would they have gotten your vote otherwise?

That depends on who they were running against. I'm die-hard independent and hate both political parties. All political parties for that matter (see sig). I've voted for both parties, third parties, and in one case Yoda (so I wouldn't have to pretend I wasn't voting in a puppet). Some politicians I dislike, some I dislike less, and they generally get my vote.

The changes listed in the article were implemented long before I joined Microsoft. The changes that will take effect in 2013 are massive in comparison. 2011 would have cost me thousands of dollars out-of-pocket had I been on the "new" plan. Instead I paid nothing. In 2013 I go back to a plan only slightly better than what I had at the 35 person small business I left last year. And that's the root of my anger, because that plan sucked.

I would like better health care for all. I really do. It's a noble idea and someday, somehow, someone will figure out how to do it in the US. This was not the right way.