I pay about $300 a month for employee sponsored health coverage for Hallboy and myself (that includes dental and vision). I don’t bulk about paying $300 because of the benefits–$10 copays for office visits which includes self-referred specialists (like dermatologist) and my yearly womanly visits; twice a year dental cleanings without any co-pay (covered 100%), and drug coverage with very little co-pay.
When I was recently in the hospital for major surgery, the only cost was my copay to see my regular physican for him to tell me “Go to the emergency room NOW”. Total hospital bill? Over $24,000. My cost? $10.
The reason this is sort of relevant is you could probably purchase health insurance on your own for less than $300 a month. As a young male, you are a good risk. However, there may be a downside to purchasing your own health insurance. They may be able to drop you or raise your rates if you do have claims. I believe this depends on state law. You might want to look into what the situation is in your state, what you’d pay for an individual policy, and what flexibility you have to get into the group plan later as a contractor if the individual insurance were to drop you or raise your rates. Under the right circumstances, you might be able to save a significant amount of money at not too much risk.
Also, I have not heard of independent contractors being offered membership in a group plan before. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but it is not especially common. If you are contracted through an agency, then it is typical for an agency to offer health insurance, but not contribute much toward it, like you describe.
I sell health insurance and our products for individuals and small business are age banded. It is certainly not illegal, at least in California. I don’t work in mid or large group so I don’t know if they do that or not.
I work for a 200+ person company. They pay for my health insurance (and half of my dependents’). The company pays a premium of $269.47 every two weeks for me, which works out to $583.85/month.
Yes, that’s my contribution to an employee plan. Gender and health status don’t matter, IIRC, it’s based off how much you make. Since I only make half of what the average salary is here, that could explain my low premium. My check stubs through July show 424.34, for health insurance, and 156.34 for life, disability, and workers comp. So, it’s $60 a month for health, and $83 total.
Should a question about supplemental insurance go here or in a new thread?
In short: MrsDvl and I are freelance consultants. I found a great gig for a client that keeps me on their books as a part-time employee despite not billing hours every week. This includes enrollment in their part-time benefits program, which dramatically cuts the cost of our insurance.
For $260 per month we’ve (the two of us) got Aetna’s decent-but-basic medical ($15 co-pay, 20K max benefit per year), pretty-basic hospitalization ($1K per + $100 day), and token dental. That’s the maximum coverage we could sign up for, but as it’s somewhat limited due to the part-time employee nature of the program.
Which is why we’ve been thinking about supplemental insurance. Lot’s of questions (e.g., how much to expect to pay, what levels are ‘normal’, what to make of that duck), but I’m not sure if this warrants its own thread – thoughts?