I feel sick looking at the cost of healthcare for my family

[Anonymous]

I'm looking at the open enrollment form for health insurance through my company, a small business. Last year, the cost for my family of three was roughly $700/month, including my company's subsidy (they only subsidize me as the employee). At the time, I thought this was a lot, so I ended up only insuring myself and my child for about $250/month. My spouse had other insurance for a temporary period.

Looking at the prices for this year for the equivalent plan that's offered (for some reason, we weren't offered the exact same plan), the premiums have nearly doubled - the cost to insure me and my child would be over $500, for my family over $1300, and this includes my subsidy. Do other people find this acceptable? It seems astronomically expensive to me. I didn't cover my spouse last year, who is self employed. I was hoping to cover my spouse this year, and now I don't know if we can even afford it. The rise in the price in healthcare actually eats up my entire raise for this year if I were to cover us all, so effectively I will take home the same amount of money if I do this.

How much are others paying for their health insurance? Should I just get my own coverage elsewhere at this point?

[Anonymous]

Edit: When I say *my own*, I mean should I find coverage for my entire family elsewhere, not just for myself.

[Anonymous]

Is this a PPO, low deductible plan?

I am self employed. Family of 4. PPO with Care First, high deductible plan is about $750. I also put money into my MSA to pay for out of pockets and deductibles.

If you don't have a lot of medical issues, go with the high deductible plan.

[Anonymous]

How small is your company? Companies with less than 50 lives insured are now based on age. I don't work in a org that small, but have been reviewing plans for small organizations and I was shocked at how expensive it was. For example, in a company of less than 10 employees, the total cost for a family of 5 (with the adults in their late 40s) cost $2500. A comparable plan in my 200 person company total cost is $1200 per month.

[Anonymous]

Yep. Since the passage of the ADA, our health care costs have gone up more than annual salary increases. Co-payments have also doubled.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's a PPO. The HMO family plan is still over $1000/month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How small is your company? Companies with less than 50 lives insured are now based on age. I don't work in a org that small, but have been reviewing plans for small organizations and I was shocked at how expensive it was. For example, in a company of less than 10 employees, the total cost for a family of 5 (with the adults in their late 40s) cost $2500. A comparable plan in my 200 person company total cost is $1200 per month.

My company used to be that size, and now we are larger, yet the premium prices have increased, not decreased. I don't understand it. I also don't understand why the size of my company should affect what I pay for health insurance.

[Anonymous]

Same here, OP. I don't think we can afford our premiums and we don't qualify for a subsidy. Almost got canceled last month because we were late with the payment. What do people do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How small is your company? Companies with less than 50 lives insured are now based on age. I don't work in a org that small, but have been reviewing plans for small organizations and I was shocked at how expensive it was. For example, in a company of less than 10 employees, the total cost for a family of 5 (with the adults in their late 40s) cost $2500. A comparable plan in my 200 person company total cost is $1200 per month.

My company used to be that size, and now we are larger, yet the premium prices have increased, not decreased. I don't understand it. I also don't understand why the size of my company should affect what I pay for health insurance.

It's a group plan. The risks are spread out for larger companies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How small is your company? Companies with less than 50 lives insured are now based on age. I don't work in a org that small, but have been reviewing plans for small organizations and I was shocked at how expensive it was. For example, in a company of less than 10 employees, the total cost for a family of 5 (with the adults in their late 40s) cost $2500. A comparable plan in my 200 person company total cost is $1200 per month.

My company used to be that size, and now we are larger, yet the premium prices have increased, not decreased. I don't understand it. I also don't understand why the size of my company should affect what I pay for health insurance.

?? The less lives on the plan the less people there are to spread risk to. That standard existed before the ACA. With the ACA, companies with less than 50 people now pay their premiums based on employee age if the company is fully insured. So if you are younger, you are going to pay less.

In terms of your costs going up even though the company has grown, healthcare has become exponentially more expensive over the last 10 years. Additionally, if there has been a rise in catastrophic claims, your premiums can skyrocket. Many companies, like the OP, are also no longer subsidizing coverage for dependents. There are a lot of factors that account for insurance increases.

The PP who mentioned the high deductible plan is on the right track. I personally think this is how insurance will end up. It's back to the old indemnity plans.

Op, have you spent any time pricing plans on the marketplace? You might find a better plan there.

[Anonymous]

Yes, OP, we're feeling it, too. I pay $1200/month for family coverage through my employer. We are a family of 5, all in excellent health.

[Anonymous]

My DH worked for a very small company last year and a coworker ended up hospitalized for several months and ended up with a heart transplant. The family premiums *tripled* (now over $2500/month per family). Thank god we are insured through me because that is insane.

[Anonymous]

Thats actually pretty cheap

[Anonymous]

Thank Obama for that huge spike in price.

I bet most of the twits on here voted for him, yet have the lack of insight to complain about their healthcare costs!

Now I'll wait for the sycophants to defend our dear leader and blame the repubs for all our ills.

3...2...1..

[Anonymous]

OP it's not just small businesses. At my very large law firm, the low deductible family plan was $2100 a month, while the high deductible plan (15k deductible) was $800 a month. I feel your pain. One thing I'll say is DC is one of the most expensive health insurance markets in the country. If your spouse is self employed, you may be able to get a high deductible plan with an HSA - still not great, but may be slightly better.