# How Much Do You Pay for Health/Dental Insurance At Work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2012, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712 "2012-01-07T08:14:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/21 "2012-01-07T21:28:16Z")
I don’t currently have it. If I get this job in Denver Public Schools, it will cost about $3k/yr. That’s $250/month average (only contracted for 10 and a half) and doesn’t include dental. For dental, the max benefit is 1,500 a year, so don’t plan on needing a root canal. Yeah. Teachers are _so_ overpaid. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/22 "2012-01-07T23:02:35Z")
I don’t pay anything BUT… We’re a 3-person company with one person on his wife’s coverage. So for me and the other guy + his wife and kid it’s $1600/mo. That’s $1600/mo less that can go to payroll. Plus I have an HSA (so my monthly cost is like $100 of that $1500) and the company contributes the max each year for me ($3050?). I usually don’t have to pay much out of pocket every year but I think my business partner does. I am all for socialized health insurance. I highly doubt that we’d be paying more than $1600/mo in extra taxes if it were a reality, and we wouldn’t be paying anything out-of-pocket. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/23 "2012-01-07T23:41:08Z")
I pay nothing, but my employeer pays $1470 per employee per month. Negoations always begin with heath care them wages. My son is in management in the retail industry for his family it is over $600 per month. If you have good coverage with no Dr. office co pays then you are not paying much compaired to what your employeer is. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/24 "2012-01-07T23:42:35Z")
We pay $200 or so a month for the three of us through Tricare with stupid low deductibles and a reasonable cost share. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an area with a lot of military, so finding doctors can be a challenge. ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/25 "2012-01-08T00:52:04Z")
$200/month for spouse and I for health insurance. $35/month for Dental, $25(?)ish a month for Eye. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/26 "2012-01-08T01:15:31Z")
I’m a 28 year old, healthy guy and buy my own health insurance. I pay ~$76/month for bare bones coverage with a $5,000 deductible. No vision or dental insurance. ---
**Author:** ![ballardfam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8797f3/32.png) [@ballardfam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ballardfam)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/27 "2012-01-08T01:27:26Z")
$600/month starting in March for family which will be $7,200/year. It’s been around $175/month plus $100 for dental. We’ve only used enough medical to equal what we pay once in the past 12 years but that was a very bad year & it would have cost us a couple hundred thousand if we didn’t have insurance. Since us adults are over 50 we really don’t have a choice to forego. I wouldn’t mind a policy that gave great coverage only after you met a 7 - 10 thousand deductable. I think we’d come out ahead. But that’s not offered. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/28 "2012-01-08T01:28:03Z")
Zero. ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/29 "2012-01-08T02:13:14Z")
$300 a month for myself, spouse, and two kids. We have copays for everything, usually $20 for any office visit, $200 for hospitalization, $75 for ambulance, and if you go to the ER for something and are not admitted, $500. I’m a state employee in NY, and yes, union. Oh, and dental is covered to $1500 a year but they have set prices for services and most dentists charge more. Our management are not union and pay twice what union members pay. ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/30 "2012-01-08T02:20:16Z")
Around $520/ month for our family of three. $3000 deductible /person, $6000 deductible for family. That includes almost no dental and no vision, we all wear glasses. We pay almost full price for prescriptions until our deductible is used. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/31 "2012-01-08T02:42:21Z")
Non-American. Don’t need it. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/32 "2012-01-08T06:32:02Z")
Thanks, I guess were not so far out of line, it’s just the huge increase at once is gonna shock people. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/33 "2012-01-08T06:41:55Z")
$264/month for myself, wife, and 3 kids. Includes: Blue Cross/Blue Shield, $10 copay, no deductible Vision Plus vision care Dental PPO ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/34 "2012-01-08T14:16:43Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > Thanks, I guess were not so far out of line, it’s just the huge increase at once is gonna shock people. Another thing to ask is how many options people have. We have three medical plans and three prescription plans you can match up. So if you have a maintenance disease that requires a lot of prescriptions, but don’t need to go to the doctor a lot, you can get $10 prescriptions and a high deductible for your doctor. Or you can get cheap prescriptions and a low deductible, its more per month, but if you are at the doctor a lot or can’t afford a maximum $10k out of pocket…or you can do what we do - we will spend about $3,600 less on insurance, and we will likely pay out an extra $1,500 in doctors bills under this plan - but if one of us gets ill or injured, we’ll be out $10k. I wish our per person deductible was higher. At $1200 a person you qualify for a HSA (not to be confused with a HCSA) a wonderful thing out congress put together to have high income earners shield more income for retirement. My old company gave a small match on HSA contributions to encourage people towards that program - which they thought would be the cheaper long term option. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/35 "2012-01-08T14:25:01Z")
> [@campp](#): > > _checks that this is not a zombie thread_ > > Holy smokes, that sounds cheap to me! We pay out many MANY hundreds per month for medical only, worker plus spouse. Small family owned company, mind you. > > Pullin, seriously, $28 per month? Would you like to adopt me? I apologize, everyone. I misread the OP as asking about Dental Health (not Health/Dental). I pay about $70/paycheck (weekly) for everything (Health/Dental/Vision/Disability/Life/PrescrPlan). Only ~7 bucks is dental. Roughly $300/month. Again, apologies to the OP. I need to read more closely before posting. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/36 "2012-01-08T14:41:11Z")
I am American but left the USA 10 years ago because I could no longer buy health insurance at any price. I have private insurance via a UK firm. It is valid everywhere in the world except the USA. We pay $320/mo combined for my wife and I. $1600 deductible, $7 million total coverage. This is the total price, there is no employer picking up part of it. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/37 "2012-01-08T15:38:08Z")
> [@BeaMyra](#): > > I am in H/R and I got the increase notice for insurance at our company. Normally it’s a small increase. We have **Blue Cross/Blue Shield** and a dental PPO. (Dental is marginal with only $1,500 limit). > > Anyway the cost to our employees was $35.00 a paycheck. Paychecks are every two weeks. Spouses or defactos are $125 a paycheck additional and children come in at $75.00 additional per kid. > > It is going up to $117.00 per paycheck starting in February. Dang, that’s who I have my health/dental through. Right now I’m paying ~$50/paycheck (every 2 weeks) for health and dental (dental is $7 of that) for myself only. I like the insurance, though - no deductible, $30 co pay for office visits and 10% cost share for certain procedures. I haven’t heard anything about ours going up yet. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/38 "2012-01-08T19:44:56Z")
I left my office group plan and got underwritten on my own. For the three of us it’s $700 pm. That’s the PPO plan with maternity coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/39 "2012-01-08T23:49:35Z")
Used to pay nothing. It was something negotiated in good faith over many contracts. Lots of other things were given up to keep that in the contract. But Governor Cristie decided to circumvent legally negotiated contracts even at the local level. Right now paying about $30 a week (get paid weekly) but that is going up in “gradual” increases. ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712/40 "2012-01-09T00:51:01Z")
$16 and change per paycheck for healthcare, $3 per paycheck for dental. Paid twice a month. It’s a solid plan, with cheap copays for everything. And my coworkers complain about it. I’ll point them at this thread when I remind them how incredibly lucky we are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-do-you-pay-for-health-dental-insurance-at-work/608712.md?page=3)