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I get health insurance through my employer. My deductible is $2000 and I pay $72 per paycheck. Last year before the ACA went into effect for small businesses, I was paying roughly the same amount, but my deductible was $500. According to my CEO, my insurance last year cost $500 per month. This year, it costs around $700. I only know this because I work for a really small company and the CEO disclosed these figures.
My girlfriend works as a contractor for her company, which means she has to pay for her own health insurance. Her deductible is $1500 and her monthly premium is about $400.
Why would her plan, which is a platinum plan, cost less than mine? I haven't compared the specifics of the plans to see what's different. I do know that she's extremely happy with it. But in general, shouldn't employer-provided plans be cheaper than those you could get on the individual market? After all, if I can get the same policy I have now or the equivalent for less money on the individual market than what it would cost my employer, wouldn't it be better for both me and the company to just get the individual policy?
Here's a couple other facts which may or may not be relevant. I've been working for this company for over 2 years without a raise. I was planning to ask for one, but when I saw the increase in the cost of my health insurance, I hesitated. If the company is already paying more to provide me with health insurance, should I really ask for a raise? But this was before I started dating my current girlfriend and found out what she pays. What's also true is that my CEO is a staunch Republican who's constantly bashing Obama. During the meeting to discuss the changes in health care benefits, he said any employee who has a problem with paying more for their insurance should blame Obama. Assuming the figures he gave are correct, doesn't it seem strange that the company is paying more for my insurance than what it would cost me on the individual market? Basically what I'm trying to figure out is whether it's worthwhile to go to my employer and say "let me buy my own insurance and you give me as a raise."
As a business owner and employer let me provide this first bit of advice; do not believe what the company tells you health insurance cost. If you want to know the true and actual cost, ask for a COBRA cost statement. That is really the only written authoritative form that will show the exact amount.
Now, cost for group plans vary as much as car payments for various types of cars. Since employer provided plans can range from basic ACA compliance health insurance all the way to including dental, prescriptions, LTC, STD, LTD and whatever else the employer provides, you have to see the full plan and coverage to make a proper comparison. Sop your employer (for whatever personal, political, or sexual reasons) may show you a plan that covered A, B & C that cost $500 before "Obamacare" and now cost $1,000 under "Obamacare" but they fail to tell you they added additional coverage D, E, & F, to the new plan, or they simply reduced they contribution to the plan (they may have been paying 80% and now they are paying 65%) but they make it sound like its "Obamacare" that raised the rates.
Under the recent health care reform, employer health care plans have actually gone down, not up. If you go to the CVD's Health Insurance forum, you will read other employers explaining that rates have dropped since implementing health care reform. True, employers have twisted it to appear like the rates have risen but that's because they just pass more to the employee and pocket the amount the normally were spending. The ACA handed employers a nice "scapegoat" to blame all the ills on.
Without the COBRA cost statement to show what you are actually getting and how much it is actually costing the employer, fudging numbers for the employer's benefit is common especially since you have no real way of knowing the truth.
Don't let the fact that you are getting healthcare provided to you, which is now mandated by law, or that your CEO is saying it's gone up, prevent you from asking for a raise if you've been there a year and feel you deserve one.
And in addition to what Rabrrita has posted, if your girlfriend is going directly to the marketplace to get individual coverage, they look at the county in which she lives, her age, etc. in order to determine her rate. It's comparing apples with oranges.
As a business owner and employer let me provide this first bit of advice; do not believe what the company tells you health insurance cost. If you want to know the true and actual cost, ask for a COBRA cost statement. That is really the only written authoritative form that will show the exact amount.
Now, cost for group plans vary as much as car payments for various types of cars. Since employer provided plans can range from basic ACA compliance health insurance all the way to including dental, prescriptions, LTC, STD, LTD and whatever else the employer provides, you have to see the full plan and coverage to make a proper comparison. Sop your employer (for whatever personal, political, or sexual reasons) may show you a plan that covered A, B & C that cost $500 before "Obamacare" and now cost $1,000 under "Obamacare" but they fail to tell you they added additional coverage D, E, & F, to the new plan, or they simply reduced they contribution to the plan (they may have been paying 80% and now they are paying 65%) but they make it sound like its "Obamacare" that raised the rates.
Under the recent health care reform, employer health care plans have actually gone down, not up. If you go to the CVD's Health Insurance forum, you will read other employers explaining that rates have dropped since implementing health care reform. True, employers have twisted it to appear like the rates have risen but that's because they just pass more to the employee and pocket the amount the normally were spending. The ACA handed employers a nice "scapegoat" to blame all the ills on.
Without the COBRA cost statement to show what you are actually getting and how much it is actually costing the employer, fudging numbers for the employer's benefit is common especially since you have no real way of knowing the truth.
I've worked for small companies before, but this is the first time I've ever had an employer disclose what health insurance was costing. Even assuming the numbers were accurate, it makes me wonder what the motive was. Was it to prove that health insurance premiums are rising? We already knew that. But that was true long before the ACA. I think you're right about employers using "Obamacare" as a convenient excuse to get away with things they couldn't do before. For example, the Papa Johns CEO saying he has to cut workers hours so that he won't be forced to pay for their health benefits. That just reeked of politics. I think I will ask for a raise at some point. And if the CEO tries to play the "we're paying more for your health insurance", I'll counter by saying I'm cheaper to insure than his other employees. There are people whose monthly premium is nearly 3 times what mine is.
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