Hawaii Health Insurance Question (how much, find a job, wages)

[bluejaye]

I was reading that you can get health insurance with a part time job of 20+ hours a week in Hawaii. My question is do most employees hire you for less then 19 hours because of this? And is it hard to find a job that is part time over 20+ hours like 25 or 30? Thanks for any information.

[Balad1]

Yes and Yes; also the healthcare program employers offer isn't required to be free or even low cost.

I know plenty of people that work 2 or 3 jobs because of the 20 hour limit.

[bluejaye]

Balad1 thank you for your reply. So does the price of the insurance just vary based on what percentage your employer pays? So your pretty much going be working a full time job if you want benefits?

[Balad1]

Health insurance here is the same as in the rest of the states; costs and coverages vary by the paticular plan and how much the employer contributes.

Job opportunites in Hawaii are currently dismal and especially bad on the outer islands. The exceptions being someone with a professional degree or has a hard to fill skill set.

[Joliefille]

Yes, your employer has to allow you to join their ins. program, but doesn't neccesarily have to contribute to it.

[bluejaye]

Thank You for the replies much appreciated.

[PacificFlights]

to clear up one thing, if your employer is required to provide insurance under Hawaii's regulations, you the employee is capped at only paying 1.5% of your gross annual wages in premium. That's another reason employers keep hours low for lower wage jobs. The lower the wage the more the emplyer pays.

[mdand3boys]

To clear this up, unless you are making well over 100k a year, your employer will have to pay almost all of your health insurance. In fact, most employers will go ahead and pay all 100% of it because the resulting % you might have to pay isn't worth the extra effort on their part for payroll.

This is for individual/single coverage. If you elect to have family/dependent coverage, you will probably have to pay the entire difference in cost, which tends to be around $600 per month.

This "free" health coverage is a fallacy and is a reason why so many Hawaii employers hire 19 hour per week employees and also why wages are lower in Hawaii than in other states.