How much is too much to pay for health ins for a family, through you employer?

Question

Almost 400 a month is taken out from my check to pay for insurance.

Had an HMO and switched to PPO to save money. Ended up paying about the same because the rates went up. co-pays are 20. It is for my wife and daughter. The co-pay for my daughter's medication also comes to 400+ a month and my wife writes a check for that from her salary. It is a non-insulin injectable.
FYI. Our daughter have been hospitalized 4 x's since she came home as a premie at almost 4 months old. She's 8 now.

Answer 1

The amount depends on whether or not your employer is contributing anything towards your health care, exclusive of your family. So we'd need to know if the $400 includes you, spouse and children, or just spouse and children.

Answer 2

My cousin and her husband have to pay like $700.00 a month, she had cancer a few years ago and now it's hard for them to even be able to have ins. The have to go through Kaiser and they hate it but that is the only one that will except her.

Let face it if you even have ins. these days you are doing well.
Yes what you are paying is a lot, I'm sorry for you, but be happy that you do have it. There are still a lot of people that do not have any ins at all, that would be so hard.

Remember this all it would take is one hospital stay for any one of your family members and you'd be saying that it's worth every penny.

In 2003 I had to go to the hospital as I was having all kinds of problems and I had a lot of pain, they checking me into the hospital. After about a day they found out that I had a partially blocked aorta, which is the main/largest artery to your heart. I had to have a balloon angio plasty done, with a stent. I can not imagine what I would have done if I hadn't had my ins, it had to be about 20 grand or more. I was only in the hospital for 5 days. When I think about how much I pay for my ins. it's nothing compaired to what I could have been paying for that one hospital visitl

The reason that our insurance keeps going up is because of the people that don't pay their hospital bills, because they are unable to. Then all the illegals that come into the country and use our system, and don't pay the bill and we get stuck picking up the tab. It sucks, but again what are we going to do? I know that here in San Diego, Ca a lot of our trama centers are closing because of the amount of people not paying hospital bills. The hospital's just can not absorb the costs.

Answer 3

It's all in the details.

I pay $450/month just for me.

Is you company contributing anything toward the monthly premium (I'd guess that they are)? What's your age? And what are your health factors?

All of these things go into determining health insurance rates. It may shock you to know what your health insurance actually costs (because I'm guessing, just based on experience, that you're only paying part of the premium, probably half.)

Sure, you can try getting quotes for an individual policy. But it also might shock you what health conditions would cause a problem with getting individual policies (or getting one at any kind of decent rate.) Sure, most people realize that's true if you have diabetes, or cancer. But did you realize that the same could be true for arthritis, or sleep apnea (it's a lot more than just a snoring problem!)

Actually, I think it's a great idea for people to go out and get quotes for individual coverage. And don't just get the one where they assume you're all in perfect health, make sure they ask the height, weight, and medical conditions of every person involved then give you a realistic rate. Unless you're all the picture of perfect health, you'll probably find that you should be grateful for what you're paying now (and that you have options, because a lot of people don't.)

Answer 4

There are several factors that affect your contribution toward your insurance coverage. The first is your age. The second is your employer contribution. The third is the level of coverage that you are paying for. Without this information, it is difficult to give you an opinion about what you are paying. If you are in your 40's with a PPO plan that includes a $10 or $20 office visit copay, with no deductible, I would say you were getting away pretty cheap.

If you want to provide us with more information, we may be able to give you a better answer.

Answer 5

I don't know how many are in your family, but are you sure that premium doesn't include a prescription plan too.

we also have a PPO, husband is diabetic, so am familiar with the insulin, etc.. necessary for care.. that's covered by your RX coverage., not usually in a PPO, although your company is obviously providing it for you in conjunction with your health coverage. Check to see what y our co-pays are with the prescriptions.. I know, with ours at 30/each.. it adds up, you may have a max out of pocket annually.. check to see what it is, and if you're close.. also check to see if it is a family out of pocket.. or an individual out of pocket.

Our insurance company has messed that up many times.

initial deductible is 75 per person, or 150/family... ok, so why have they charged a deductible for my daughter, me and my husband??? give it back.. then the copays. I know it's not possible with insulin, but with most other meds, generic, sometimes the copays are less.

The same with the 80/20 plan PPO, there is usually an annual max out of pocket.. Check with your benefits department at your company or call customer service with your ins company.

Answer 6

First, you might want to try and bookmark this site for research information on health insurance. news, articles and more. It may have the resources to help you with your question.

http://www.healthinsurance-guide.net/

We had a smaller simular problem when my wife and I worked at the same place. We researched and found that it was cheaper to get our own insurance through an insurance company than go with the company we work with so that is what we did for two years. Then company we worked for became cheaper so we swiched back. We looked at it year by year and always went with the cheapest.

Company insurance is not always cheaper because of the 'health' of all the employees may be pushing the rate up of everyone. You could be paying for someone elses illness, espically in a small company. That was one reason ours was cheaper to go somewhere else.

Research it and evaluate it year by year when your company rolls over the insurance.

Answer 7

That's about what we pay, for a family of 4 1/2.

Too much, means you don't have enough left for groceries.

You can always find another job; employee benefits should be factored in to the pay scale.

Answer 8

How many people are on your policy?

$400.00 is a lot for group health insurance for one person... But, not so much for a family of 4.

I pay about $220.00 for me and sp through my job.

Answer 9

There are some drugs manufactures that offer free or discounted drugs for people who qualify. Check in the Internet the manuf. of your daughter's drug

Answer 10

That's quite a bit. I think you could probably buy your own for that, depending on the amount of coverage.