Anyone have a link that would explain..... (health insurance, credit)

[speedtazzy]

Hi,

New here and I know that the question that I am about to ask has probably been asked before but here goes.

When you are hired onto a company and asked to choose which coverage you want for dental, health, vision, that sometimes can be a problem. Especially when the company looks at you and tells you that you have to pay 20% out of your pay to have the coverage.

Excuse me but these companies get the majority back at tax time for paying for all this insurance to begin with and that is a known fact. So, someone explain to me how in the world a company that apparently makes millions upon millions of dollars cannot afford to pay the full prems for their employees and insist upon their employees paying a percentage of it to even have it?

I need links people that would start to explain any logic behind this. My husband looked at me and said that employers do this to make the employees aware of just how much insurance coverage costs. BULL!!! I keep telling him that there are other reasons for it and that he is just too blind to see it all. Also that it is not the insurance that keeps going up, it is the medical costs of having to go to the hospitals and doctors out there that keep going up because most of them went to collage to become doctors to get rich fast. Most of them do not care about the patient just the money.

And one point here that will help you understand a little bit more of why I am after links pertaining to this. Where he worked at before, he was paying 30% of his pay. Where he works now, he is paying 20%. So where would that show that it has gone UP in price?

My husband is an idiot and seems to believe everything that a company hands him. Sorry, I am not that way and I question everything!

[SouthernMomto3]

Originally Posted by speedtazzy

Also that it is not the insurance that keeps going up, it is the medical costs of having to go to the hospitals and doctors out there that keep going up because most of them went to collage to become doctors to get rich fast. Most of them do not care about the patient just the money.

Going to college to become a doctor and get rich fast is not an accurate statement. At minimum, a medical doctor will get a Bachelor Degree which is 4 to 5 years (many go to graduate school before med school), then 4 years of medical school (some are actually 5 years now, then a minimum of 3 years residency. You do not get paid until you enter residency. Residency is working 80 hours per week sometimes more and making 50k or less. There is NO overtime. When you finally complete residency which is 4 years for most and can be many more for those who do fellowships, most have upwards of $100,000 in loans to pay off. Many more have $150k or more in loans. Along the way, the physician in training has taken numerous tests from college thru medical school that they have paid thousands of dollars for and made countless personal sacrifices. So how this is a way to get rich quick, I will never know. Medicine is no longer a profession to enter just because of the money. There are people in all professions that do not care about the people they are serving. I believe most physicians do care.

As for your question, many physicians pay a part of their insurance coverage as well. We have paid as much as $600 per month for our part and my husband is a doctor.

[Jennifer823]

Sorry, but I don't think first of all that you should be posting on the internet that your husband is an "idiot."

I seriously don't think in this day and age that you're going to find many companies that will pay 100% for health insurance coverage for their employees. It's a nice idea, but good luck finding it.

[teachbeach]

Companies don't get the money back at tax time, the insurance companies keep it! I don't know where you ever got that notion, but it's so not true. Health costs all over have risen at double digit rates in the last several years, and in order for an employee to get insurance coverage for themselves (and perhaps family members) they are requiring employees to pay for a portion of the premium. Many companies won't even pay for a person until their second year, and others will only insure the employee, leaving the spouse and other family members without (or out of pocket from a private sector agent). My employer pays a premium for me (and my husband) of about $980 month, of which I pay 10%. My husband's company charges the employee 20% and the rest of the family members have to pay 50%! Insurance isn't cheap in PA (except the state employee plan) and it's one of the biggest gripes of employers who have to offer it as part of their package.

[gvillager]

Wow, I can't believe how misguided you are about medical insurance, doctors, major corporations, and taxes. Do you honestly think that health insurance is just simply a tax write off for the corporations? If it was a tax write off every single person who was employed would have insurance. Do you really think that all doctors are in it to "get rich quick" and have no concern for human suffering?

Please provide a link to the "known fact" that proves medical insurance is a tax write off.

[Katarina Witt]

Years ago (so it may have changed as the tax code often does), I read that a company gets a tax deduction for employees health insurance if they pay at least 50% of the premium. A tax deduction is NOT the same thing as a tax credit. The insurance premium gets deducted from the company's income, not the tax it owes.

I agree that the OP should not be calling her husband an idiot on the WWW.

[SouthernMomto3]

Health Insurance Pricing
Employers' costs keep rising. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation/HERT Employer Health Benefits 2004 Annual Survey, the costs for providing health insurance increased by an average of 11.2% in 2004, the fourth straight year of double-digit premium increases. For the first time, the average cost of a family PPO plan went above $10,000 a year. Fortunately for employees, employers pick up most of the costs: in 2003, on average, employers picked up 84% of premium costs for single coverage and 73% of the premium for families. Larger companies tend to pay more of the costs: large firms paid on average 76% of family coverage premium costs, compared to smaller companies' 64%.