Saturday, November 1, 2008

What do you pay in health insurance premiums per year


What do you pay in health insurance premiums per year?
If you work full-time, how much of the cost is paid by your employer? Are family members covered in your health insurance policy? And, are you experiencing yearly increases of health insurance with less benefits. Is the cost of health insurance affecting your personal budget or standard of living? Anything else you might like to add would be appreciated.
Insurance - 7 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
it said it will go up 5% this year,for the country I have 80% covered by employer.In december it will go up because it hasn't in two years.I will pay it because w/o it it is a disaster the budget would be real bad without it if got hurt,or a loved one edit:I do have family on it I added some things to your question....I saw two people working for the same company and they are married and they have separated policies and the separate policies same them money by separating it instead of joint?,that is something else
2 :
My health insurance and Dental Insurance is deducted from my paycheck every 2 weeks. For health it's $85 dollars and some change, as for Dental it's $37 dollars and some change(too lazy to dig thru check stub for exact amount)....By the way the prices above is for Me and my husband. Yeah, I have problem with my benefits. Every year it always changes, I mean first it's $25 office co-pay, then there's $20 office co-pay, then it's $20 co-pay but switch back to HMO health. What the heck! I really wish my employer will make up there minds and stay with one company, you know? Price wise, it's about the same. As for coverage, my plan has always been 85-95% coverage, $500 ded, 12 office visit a year, and etc.. Overall, even though it's a pain checking to see if my current doctor is in the network or worrying if I have to look for a new doctor or whatnot whenever my company switch insurance on us.....Just the feeling of being insured is worth every penny.
3 :
I am from Australia and I do not have to pay anything. We have medicare card where the government covers almost everything for us. This is for normal medical checkups and some medications where we can claim. I think the maximum we pay would be 30 dollars for medication. And medical checkup is free. However , people join private health insurance to have more benefit such as cheaper surgery and treatment for more severe illness that costs a lot more money. The Government just issued a new plan where general dental checkup is covered as well ( teeth checking, cleaning excluding cosmetic dental works) . So I pay less than about 100 bucks a year for my medical checkup and everything else medical related. Some of my friends are foreign students , they only pay maximum of 400 dollars per year for medibank private , where their medical checkups can also be claimed back , and get paid back for every dollar after the first 30 bucks spend on medication. And in case of surgery and emergency , their health insurance covers half of expense. Obese , Smokers , and those that are sick due to their chosen lifestyles are currently greatly helped by the government as well. They have a lot of benefits. However, this , I think, is about to change since the Australian Medical Association is calling for the government to erase some of the benefits these people have, because they are putting a great strain on hospitals ( use of bed , cost of surgeries - they recover much harder due to smoking , and use a lot of aneathesia in case of obese patients ) , instead putting " healthy" patients in priority. However, the Liberal government was trying to let this health matter controlled by private health companies but australians opposed it. Thanks Neptune and Uranus, the new government prevailed ( The Labor ) and this suggestion certainly was thrown into the bin where it belongs.
4 :
I now pay $3500.00 a year on my own, but I'm high risk because I have an unusual illness with a history of surgery. When I bought a medical insurance package for my business, I was surprised to discover that I would have to find a high risk carrier for myself. Everyone who worked in my business was covered except for myself. My premiums increase about 12% every year. I don't gripe too much because I know medical costs are out of this world. My husband does contracting for a business which has group coverage, and the part he pays for me is about $150.00 a month, so $1800.00 a year. Having both is what works out best for me because they overlap. We just received a notice this week that they will increase $25.00 a month. From time to time, there will be a struggle with both insurance companies over who is going to pay what. Last year, they bickered back and forth for about ten months. I finally contacted my state's attorney general insurance investigators to take care of the matter. It was amazing how fast the medical bills got paid after that. I'm growing concerned over what's in the future for my family. My husband recently developed a new problem related to his time in military service. He is a Vietnam veteran. He was shocked to find that Bush has cut medical benefits to any veteran who has not been using them. My husband hired an attorney to get those benefits reinstated, and that has not happened yet. My son's employer provides no benefits whatsoever, and I don't like that, but I try to not be a meddling mother. I've discussed having him placed back on my business coverage (he was dropped when he turned 21). It's not affecting our budget greatly yet, but I'm worried about what retirement is going to be like with our economy and the extreme increase in costs.
5 :
right now my hubby is in military so we are covered (family) and i think we pay 20% or something but when he gets back it will be like $300 month for same insurance and he will still be in the military just not in a war zone. if he got insurance through his civilian job it was like $500 month and I don't remember how much they covered cos we didn't keep it long before he had to be deployed. Oh man health insurance is way up and anyone who says different is in a dream world! Yes it's affecting everything because families need health insurance and it's as much as a freaking car payment is!
6 :
My 12 yo daughter and I have no health insurance. :-(
7 :
I am in Canada:-) Healthcare is freebut then taxes are very hight.Almost half your salary for most people. But medications do not have a fixed "fee". If you are self-employed you are not covered. Some people (am thinking of diabetics) spend thousand of $$ just on insulin alone. To recover some of the cost, comes tax time, you have to prove that you spent more that 3% of your earnings..OK..maybe am wrong here; could be more. Medication cost covered(up to 80%) is fully at the discretion of some companies. Some are generous and some are very stingy and some offer nothing at all. It is a complicated system. And no Canadian healthcare is not the best in the world. Ranks at about 30 in industrialised countries. A lot of people cannot find a family doctor. Myself : I use a walk-in clinic and they have since become kind of family doctors.



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