How much do you pay into your employer-covered healthcare?

[catherine]

So, March 31 is the deadline to get health insurance under the ACA. I already pay an arm and a leg $1400/month, with a $5,000 deductible and 50% coinsurance on a lot of stuff like prescriptions.

So I'm trying to figure out the best options for me, but when I compare the plans I'm eligible for, they all pretty much net out the same: you either pay up front in terms of a large premium (in my case that's up to $2000) and get low deductibles and copays, or you pay less each month, but depending on your health situation, you wind up paying the same anyway. I'm healthy (knock wood), but DH has a couple of things that are not HUGELY expensive, but cost about $5 a year.

Honestly, I'm wondering if I need to go back to a (yikes!) job. Assuming I can even get a job at my age, I was just wondering how much employee contributions have gone up since I left the workforce?

For those of you with regular jobs, how much do you pay into your healthcare plan at work?

I am so tempted to just go without healthcare at least until I can pay off my debt. If I had no insurance and nothing catastrophic happened, I could make a $25,000 dent in my debt in just one year. But that's a huge roll of the dice.

[rosarugosa]

Hi Catherine,
I believe I have an extremely good benefits package. Here is what I pay:
Medical: 124.79 biweekly for me and spouse
Dental: 22.01 biweekly for me and spouse
We each have a $600 deductible and annual out of pocket maximum of $2000
I would not recommend going without coverage. When DH got a significant health condition diagnosed a couple of years ago, it was such a relief to have good medical coverage. I cannot imagine how much greater our stress would have been if we didn't have adequate medical coverage.
Good luck with your decision.

[jp1]

I pay in about $100 biweekly. My employer contributes about $450. This is for a PPO plan with a $50 (I think. I've never actually used it) copay and a $3,000 out of network max out of pocket. From people I work with who've used it much I believe it's a pretty good plan. I work for a large corporation with approx. 30,000 US employees.

I too would discourage going without health insurance. While yours is definitely expensive the catastrophe that would befall you if you got sick or injured without it would be life changing in a very bad way.

[Tammy]

To cover me and my spouse, I pay about 150 every 2 weeks. That covers medical, dental, vision, and a small life insurance for him and a big one for me. We have about 2000 each that we pay up front yearly, then 90% of everything is covered until we have about 5000 out of pocket. Then it's covered completely.

It's the best plan I've ever had. If I didn't need insurance I would work as pool (set my own schedule and get 5 more dollars an hour) but I can't say no to regular full time employment with this sort of coverage.

[pinkytoe]

I work for the state and as long as I work full-time, it is fully paid by them as well as in retirement. It is valued at $497 a month but just medical with a $350 deductible - I don't have vision or dental. If I add medical only for dh, the cost will be $240 a month. Right now he is paying $250 a month through his employer's plan but has a ridiculous deductible and out of pocket so will probably switch him to mine during enrollment period.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I pay I think $174-$175 twice a month for the PPO Just medical, just me, and that's just the employee portion. It is tax deductible without itemization.

I could go with the HMO for free though, it wouldn't cover out of state, it wouldn't cover out of network (so expect shocks with your hospital bill as they aren't all in network), and you'd need a referral for everything, and the HR person says you'd need to fight to see a specialist so do it if your willing to fight (as if you are well equipped to fight bureaucracy when sick!!!! - even if your the type of person that would when well!!!). It goes without saying I would not easily be able to afford CORBA on this thing (because the total cost is over $700 a month with the employer part) and if costs keep going up this ordinary PPO might be declared a Cadillac plan (is it a total cost of 10k a year both employer and employee part?) and then the only choice would be the HMO I guess. It's a company with 1000 something employees total worldwide.

[Spartana]

Catherine - Is that your costs with ACA subsidies? Or maybe you are too high (or low) income to get them as I think the cut off is at $45K/year on the high end and $16K/year on the low end. Seems like a high cost but I'll assume it's for you and your DH without subsidies since mine is $625/month with a $6500/year deductible with no subsidies as a single person so similar - although I'm in the too low of a taxable income bracket to get subsidies rather than the too high. I think the only way to lower your costs without having to go back to work (OH THE HORROR!!!!) is to try to reduce your taxable income so that you can qualify for subsidies (not saying I agree with this tactic but just throwing it out there as an option). Not sure how doable that would be for you as you are in the process of paying off big debts and probably need that higher income now. Maybe see if you can become debt free another way (you mentioned wanting to sell house and downsize to a paid off place) and then reduce your income so you can qualify for subsidies. I know of many people who are doing just that. I'm dropping my private health insurance myself since it became too expensive once the ACA was implemented (tripled in price and higher deductible) but I have the option to use the VA hospital when/if needed. Hoping at some point they will reintroduce low cost catastrophic plans again as that worked very well for me.

[Teacher Terry]

The upper income end for ACA is $62,000 and is the MAGI. This basically means you subtract your deductions from your income and if you are below 62,000 you get some type of subsidy. State employees with spouse only pay $350/month but now that I am retired it is $740 and I am sure it will go up 7/1. We will know in about a week.

[Spartana]

The upper income end for ACA is $62,000 and is the MAGI. This basically means you subtract your deductions from your income and if you are below 62,000 you get some type of subsidy. State employees with spouse only pay $350/month but now that I am retired it is $740 and I am sure it will go up 7/1. We will know in about a week.Yeah that amount ($62K) is for married couples with no dependent kids (which would be Catherine). $45K is for single people like me. But I did look up the amount of subsidy a couple gets at $62,000 - which is zero - and it is only $35/month for a Silver level plan at an income level of $53,000. So unless you are fairly low income as a married couple you probably aren't going to get much in subsidies. Same for a single person.

From an ACA website:
Phaseout levels: Income of $94,200 or higher for a family of four, $78,000 for a family of three, $62,000 for a married couple with no kids, and $45,960 for single individuals will no longer receive government health care subsidies. The basic math is 4X the poverty level as determined by the government. Despite the phaseout, the good thing is that it looks like the max % of income one has to pay annually in premiums gets fixed at 9.5% of gross salary no matter what you make. - See more at: http://www.financialsamurai.com/subsidy-amounts-by-income-limits-for-the-affordable-care-act-obamacare/#sthash.iHgK1aAw.dpuf