How does insurance work when you are employed full time?

25 comments

1. In most cases for more serious jobs the insurance can and will be pretty good. Its part of your compensation package. Sometimes you negotiate it as part of your hiring or pay increase. Sometimes you’re provided options where you can select a more thorough plan vs. less so and instead take more money. Lots and lots of variables.

2. A lot of employers offer good plans so as to attract better employees. It’s one of the things people consider when looking for a job.

   You’re always free to buy your own insurance in addition or instead.

3. This is all highly dependent on the individual employer. Small businesses might offer one or two options but larger ones may offer several. Some are fully paid by the employer and some do have the employee pay a (discounted) cost for the premium.

4. >most places put you on the shittiest insurance they feasibly can

   It’s a little more complicated than this, obviously companies want to economize and not buy the most lavish and expensive plan that exists, but employer-provided health insurance is an employee benefit and companies, to some degree, compete on this. This is less true the lower on the totem pole you are, obviously, but companies that offer good insurance and other benefits absolutely use it in their recruitment. Most employers also offer two or three plans that have varying levels of cost sharing, which is to say on a spectrum between low monthly payments/high costs for using insurance vs high monthly payments/low costs for healthcare.

   There are absolutely supplemental plans out there. I think the ones closest to what you probably have in mind are hospital insurance, severe illness insurance, and indemnity insurance. Usually these will pay you fixed amounts of money and will help you pay for your expenses.

5. You can choose which plan to use. For example i have the “Gold” plan. Which is second best, i pay more but its better coverage.

6. >I’m assuming most places put you on the shittiest insurance they feasibly can.

   It’s the opposite actually.

   Good coverage makes a company more appealing, and like other employee benefits it causes competition between companies as they try to out do each other in what they offer potential employees.

   It’s considered something of a bragging point over the competition in a “wouldn’t you rather work for *us*?” kind of way.

7. Every job I’ve had has offered a variety of plans.

   Some with cheaper monthly costs, but high deductibles and not as much coverage.

   I would always buy into the most expensive plan. It really didn’t take that much more out of my paycheck & it gave me tons of better coverage.

   I could’ve had opted to use “The Marketplace” provided by the ACA, but that’s usually based on your income. So, if you’re making good money, you’ll end up paying way more thru the ACA for similar coverage than you would be through your job.

   Personally, I never really had issues with my health insurance, but I am young & relativey healthy.

8. Your assumption is incorrect. Good benefits (which includes health insurance) are a way for companies to attract & keep better employees. So they aren’t just dumping employees on crappy insurance plans. It can vary a great deal depending on company size, industry, etc

9. It depends on the size of the business too because if it’s a small business that only employs a handful of people, they’re not obligated to provide health insurance. What constitutes a “small business” is determined state by state. Usually, it’s below 50 employees.

   In my state actually, there is no obligation for any employer to provide group health insurance plans, but there are some hidden parts with that too.

   Also, some places will not begin to offer you heakth plans until you’ve worked for them for 30 days or more.

10. No, the benefit of being on an employer plan is because of their purchasing power, they can afford better insurance than you could on your own.

    In larger companies, you may get several tiers to choose from but it mainly impacts your premium (what you pay each month out of your paycheck) and deductible (the max you have to hit before insurance covers pretty much everything). If you pay a higher premium each month, you’ll have a lower deductible. If you pay a low premium each month, you’ll have a higher deductible.

    You also may be able to take money out of your paycheck and into a health savings account, which is pre-tax. This way you can cover at least some of your out of pocket expenses for the year. It can also be used on qualifying over the counter purchases like band-aids, allergy pills, Tylenol, and so on.

    My employer offers a high deductible, low premium plan; a medium/medium; and a low deductible, high premium plan. But I work for a fairly large company.

11. Well that’s my assumption proven incorrect! Thanks for everyone’s input it’s really put my mind at rest.

12. Insurance and other benefits are ways for employers to sign you for the job. I was a public school teacher for many years- the pay wasn’t very good, but my insurance was amazing! It was a selling point: “teachers get great benefits”

    Even now that I’m in the private sector I have incredible insurance so I haven’t had the experience of really crappy insurance through work. Once I even worked at as a server at a restaurant that provided insurance(which is rare) and it was quite good.

13. If you’re working for a large company that can pay you to move, their insurance is usually pretty solid. (Because of their size, they’re able to negotiate good deals with the different providers.)

    Our healthcare system is horrible if you’re uninsured or underinsured. If you have good insurance, it’s generally pretty good. Wealthy people fly in from around the world when they need cancer or treatment for other rare diseases. As long as it doesn’t involve stem cells, we’re often at the forefront of research. (Not sure if you follow MotoGP, but Marc Márquez flew to the US from Spain to fix an injury that didn’t heal properly.)

14. My employer offers quite a few different plans to choose from – it all depends on how much you want to spend, how high you want your deductible, etc.

    On top of that, they offer FSA’s and HSA’s as well.

15. > I’m assuming most places put you on the shittiest insurance they feasibly can.

    No it’s *not* always the worst package out there.

    One way employees choose (who to work for) is by the benefits package, so if a company wants to be competitive and get the best employees, they will offer a really good one.

16. It depends on the type of job. Health insurance is a very important benefit for attracting employees, so many full time jobs offer decent plans. And there are usually options between cheaper HMO plans and more costly PPO plans to choose from. Also, employers typically cover some of the cost, but the employee also has to pay for a chunk. Seems like employee is typically responsible for 1/3 of cost, more (like around half) to cover dependents on the plan.

17. I haven’t found that employers offer shitty insurance. My company provides one if the highest coverages available in my state.

18. there are usually multiple plans and options depending on what you need. you can just choose the one that works best for you.

    also, if you’re a married couple, you can choose to be on your spouse’s insurance if their options are better through their employer.

19. The employer has to provide an insurance plan, usually you still have to pay for most of it, they can’t make you take it, but it’s usually cheaper than seeking private insurance.

20. Depends on the policy offered, if your company offers one.

    My specific example:

    Currently, mine costs about $780 per month for me and my husband. It comes out of my paycheck weekly, and is subtracted from the amount I would pay income tax on. We pay $40 to see our general care practitioner, $50 for a specialist, $10 per month for generic prescriptions and $30 per month for covered name brand prescriptions. For hospitalizations, surges, etc, watch of us pay the first $3000, and any subsequent costs are paid 70% by the insurance and 30% by us.

    I had minor surgery as an outpatient. I paid my 3k copay, and then another $3981 to the hospital… (original bill over 12k). Then got additional bills from radiology, anesthesia, which will be covered by the 70/30 rule too. After 15 k comes out of our pocket for me, then insurance will cover 100% of costs. With some exceptions up to $1 million. Then it caps out and I’m on my own. My insurance does not cover things like cosmetic surgery, fertility treatments, or things considered experimental.

    If you get really sick, you can be in big trouble

    Dental and vision are separate, and suck.

21. I have excellent insurance that is cheap through my employer. Like it almost feels like a steal. We’re pretty healthy fortunately so pretty low utilizers. I’m very fortunate though and realize all don’t have this as a benefit, but most jobs that aren’t minimum wage have decent plans.

22. > … but I’m assuming most places put you on the shittiest insurance they feasibly can.

    *Absolutely not.* Excellent health care coverage is a very important part of the compensation package at most companies, and current health care coverage laws don’t hobble the group health care insurance system in the same way private (or individual) health care insurance is hobbled.

    The last job my wife had as a RD for a dialysis clinic had *amazing* health care insurance coverage–and the coverage I’d get if I went to work full time at a software development firm would be top-notch.

    —-

    Most of the horror stories you hear about poor health coverage in America stem either from people who are not employed and who have to obtain their own insurance (and fail to get adequate insurance or simply skip getting insurance at all), who get insurance from the Veterans Administration, or who are poor and wind up with insurance from Medicaid.

    My private insurance plan for my wife and I from the HealthCare.gov exchange is **terrible** in terms of price, coverage and deductibility. But I wouldn’t go without it, because if either my wife or I were to get into an accident, hospital bills could ruin us financially.

23. You’re employer has a big plan, you get on it and pay a portion. Some pay none, some pay all.

    Plans vary. My husband is a very high up person (director) in a good company. Our plan sucks. I pay for the most expensive one but it doesn’t matter. Insurance pays for a portion.

    Our family when all is said and done probably spends 20K a year, when you add our $$ for monthly cost of the insurance and how much it costs to actually go to doctors — and we are very doctor avoidant.

24. My insurance through work is very good! Covers most everything at minimal cost to me. They can get away with paying ppl less if the benefits are good. Having insurance is huge.

25. No, most places give you really good insurance. It’s part of the negotiation package. Probably second most important part of package after salary. For some people (especially if they or their loved ones have serious medical conditions) it’s *the* most important part of the package.

    One of the signs of a subpar job is that it gives crappy or no health insurance. No medium to high tier job would have “the shittiest insurance.” The two wouldn’t go together.