Should I and my spouse carry each other on our health insurance through our work?

Question

I have to make the yearly selections on my insurance benefits should I carry my spouse on mine and he carry me on his. Will this benefit us or hurt us

Answer 1

There is no reason that both of you should be on each policy. You will not get double benefits.

The way to approach it is to compare the plan features of each and take into account how much your employer contributes to the cost of the respective plans.

If you consider your out of pocket cost (copays & deductibles) and what your monthly premium will be, net of the employer contribution, it should not be a problem to choose the one plan that is best combination of cost and benefits.

Answer 2

You can't make a profit on a health claim, so the employee's own coverage would be primary and then the spouse's would pay the rest up to the amount of the claim, i.e. the deductible or copayment.

This only makes sense if you have high deductibles or copayments and use a lot of medical services and your employer subsidizes the premium a lot. For most people, the additional premium for double family coverage would be more than paying the copays yourself.

Answer 3

Are you trying to decide which coverage to take or do you want each of you to be listed on both?

If you only want one set of coverage, do the math. Is it cheaper for both to be on his, both to be on yours, or for you each to carry yourselves? (One of my bosses did the last option. He has his own coverage at work, but it’s cheaper for their family for his wife & kids to be on hers.)

If you take out both sets of coverage for each other, you’re paying doubly. However, you would have the benefit of choosing which insurance to bill for a given service and if you experienced a catastrophic illness with costs that exceded one insurers coverage, the other insurance could then pick up (some of) the rest of the bill.