Frustrated. Take home pay $9k. Health insurance $3k/month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is ridiculous.. no one pays that for insurance. I cover my family and it's no more than 1100/ month with low deductible. Take the time to find a new job. This is NOT typical.

Never had a job with 401k, health insurance, or any benefits in nearly 30 years in DC. Imagine being told to get one that has those those things, but better ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s better to go without insurance. Save the money to pay for the catastrophe.

I guess just pray no one is hospitalized? The median cost for an uninsured person with COVID in 2021 was nearly $50,000. Price is at least 10% higher now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is ridiculous.. no one pays that for insurance. I cover my family and it's no more than 1100/ month with low deductible. Take the time to find a new job. This is NOT typical.

Never had a job with 401k, health insurance, or any benefits in nearly 30 years in DC. Imagine being told to get one that has those those things, but better ones.

Actually, this is quite typical for a job at a smaller company. My husband and I both work for smaller tech companies and these are the kinds of plans available to us. If/when our smaller tech companies are bought out by bigger tech companies, we'll get better insurance, I hope. The difference between the haves and have-nots keeps getting further and further apart.

A related thing I noticed is that I have a coworker who needed a really expensive prescription drug. And the drug was actually cheaper to buy with a Good Rx coupon instead of with insurance. So how exactly is insurance helping your average, non-millionaire these days...?

[Anonymous]

Maybe we should stop paying for elective surgeries….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we should stop paying for elective surgeries….

Yeah, screw my myomectomy! (You don't know what "elective surgery" means.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is ridiculous.. no one pays that for insurance. I cover my family and it's no more than 1100/ month with low deductible. Take the time to find a new job. This is NOT typical.

Never had a job with 401k, health insurance, or any benefits in nearly 30 years in DC. Imagine being told to get one that has those those things, but better ones.

Actually, this is quite typical for a job at a smaller company. My husband and I both work for smaller tech companies and these are the kinds of plans available to us. If/when our smaller tech companies are bought out by bigger tech companies, we'll get better insurance, I hope. The difference between the haves and have-nots keeps getting further and further apart.

A related thing I noticed is that I have a coworker who needed a really expensive prescription drug. And the drug was actually cheaper to buy with a Good Rx coupon instead of with insurance. So how exactly is insurance helping your average, non-millionaire these days...?

The reality is that employee premiums through most employers tend to be much lower. The average for a family in the US is $533-$625 per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we should stop paying for elective surgeries….

Sort of related, but I've noticed on all 4 sides of our family that elderly are being scammed into knee/hip replacements. I'm convinced it's to get money out of medicare. Our extended family members are in very poor health, get told they need a knee replacement (despite only having minor pain), know they won't do any sorts of physical therapy or exercise. Now my extended family members are either in medicaid nursing homes (even more money from taxpayers!) and/or wheelchairs full time. Does a 93 year old in poor health need a hip replacement? Her quality of life is so much worse now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is ridiculous.. no one pays that for insurance. I cover my family and it's no more than 1100/ month with low deductible. Take the time to find a new job. This is NOT typical.

Never had a job with 401k, health insurance, or any benefits in nearly 30 years in DC. Imagine being told to get one that has those those things, but better ones.

Actually, this is quite typical for a job at a smaller company. My husband and I both work for smaller tech companies and these are the kinds of plans available to us. If/when our smaller tech companies are bought out by bigger tech companies, we'll get better insurance, I hope. The difference between the haves and have-nots keeps getting further and further apart.

A related thing I noticed is that I have a coworker who needed a really expensive prescription drug. And the drug was actually cheaper to buy with a Good Rx coupon instead of with insurance. So how exactly is insurance helping your average, non-millionaire these days...?

we use goodrx for some drugs, even generic ones.

It's weird to me that goodrx can get the drug cheaper than an insurance company, but this is why expanding medicare would help. It is the largest group plan and has a better negotiating position.

I would never go without insurance due to 1. we're older 50/60s 2. there is cancer on both sides of our family. The current high deductible plan at least covers annuals and most generic rx drugs. If you have catastrophic insurance, the generic drug price would be a lot higher, even with goodrx.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s better to go without insurance. Save the money to pay for the catastrophe.

This is just incorrect. My 16 year old nephew, an athlete and in wonderful health, was diagnosed with lymphoma (cancer). Without health insurance, my sister would have gone bankrupt. It is not better to not have insurance because cancer or something similar can hit anyone, any age.

You can't save enough to cover some kinds of catastrophes. You can hope it's not you, but you never know. And that's a gamble I don't think is worth taking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find a job with better insurance.

That amazing insurance you have won't be there forever. And if you think you can just switch job to get a better insurance you won't find any because they will all be expensive.

It amazes that people who think they have great insurance today will be the case forever.

+1. I’m a Fed and one of the proposals earlier this year was a health care stipend post retirement. It didn’t pass but it doesn’t mean that it never will.

[Anonymous]

Elections have consequences OP.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who intentionally went part time to get Medicaid for self and kids, due to new increased rate for insurance at work - it would have left her with less take home income than working part time.
It’s madness. This administration and this congress will be remembered for robbing people of health insurance.

[Anonymous]

Get married, spouse gets a BS job at Wells Fargo, Bank of America. Bam health insurance only 155$ a pay. Plus a 70k paycheck. And 3,500 back on your pocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is ridiculous.. no one pays that for insurance. I cover my family and it's no more than 1100/ month with low deductible. Take the time to find a new job. This is NOT typical.

I cover my family and it’s $4K per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who intentionally went part time to get Medicaid for self and kids, due to new increased rate for insurance at work - it would have left her with less take home income than working part time.
It’s madness. This administration and this congress will be remembered for robbing people of health insurance.

I know someone who had their 20 yr old in college adult DC who works PT be "independent" on tax returns (so can't be claimed as a dependent) so that they could go on medicaid. Otherwise, adding them to the health insurance would've been more expensive.