Options evaluated and submitted.
Tis that time of year again, the dreaded open enrollment. With all the craziness of health care over the past few years, I all but hold my breath each time it comes around. We were fortunate this year not to experience any significant increase in premiums or changes in the plans Hub’s employer offers. From reading posts from other bloggers, I know we are fortunate.
For medical, we can choose from four plans. The first two I wouldn’t even consider. While they come with super low premiums, they also come with super crappy coverage. The third one comes with a $5,000 annual family deductible, but the company offsets that by putting $840 into an FSA. It does, however, cover preventative care at 100%. After the deductible is met, everything is then covered at 100%. The last option is a “Cadillac Plan” with lower copays but also comes with a much higher price tag. The max OOP for the Cadillac plan is $2,000/person and $4,000/family. Prescriptions, however, have a separate deductible under this policy. Given the premium savings, we again went with the third option. I figured it using a worse case scenario, and we still come out ahead.
In addition to keeping the same health plan, we also chose to stay with the same dental plan. Hub’s company offers two plans, and we have the better of the two. Yes, it is more expensive, but it also gives us a higher benefit, a reduced deductible, and covers many things at 100%.
What change Hubs and I decided to make was putting in $2,650 (the max allowed) into the FSA. Combined with the $840 put in by his company, this will give us $3,490 to offset any health expenses. Under this plan, we are not eligible for an HSA, or we would use that option. With an FSA being a “use it or lose it” account, we’ve previously been very conservative with how much we contribute. The past two years we have exceeded that amount of expenses, so we decided this year to go with the max allowed. Whether it be for health, dental, or vision, the FSA will be fully utilized, and we may as well benefit from the tax savings.
Another change we made was to add me to our vision plan. I had an eye exam and purchased new glasses in Nov of 2016, so I didn’t feel the need for 2017. No sense in paying for something I knew I wouldn’t be using. Providing I don’t notice any changes in my vision, I’ll wait until the end of 2018 for my exam. Our FSA will also come into play. Unless funds remain, I’ll avoid getting new specks! Thankfully, I haven’t ever had too much of a change in prescriptions when I have gone for my exams.
We also beefed up Hub’s short-term disability. After reviewing our benefits, I remembered why we didn’t opt for it this year. Hubs started with his current company in Aug 2016. For 2017, it meant that they would figure his benefit off a (very) low base. Going into 2018, his benefit will be much higher. Since short-term covers the first 26 weeks, we felt the need to increase this above what the company provides. Last year we did opt for the higher long-term benefit and have done so again for 2018.
Hub’s company does cover 100% of some benefits such as basic life insurance (for both of us), core short and long-term disability and with the chosen medical plan, contributes to our FSA. So then, how much is coming out of our check? Here is the breakdown:
Medical $116.77*
Dental $18.23*
Medical FSA $101.92*
Vision $5.87*
Supplemental Life (Hubs) $47.77
Supplemental Life (me) $7.96
Supplemental disability $10.59
(short-term)
Supplemental disability $2.85
(long-term)
__________________________
Grand Total $311.96 per bi-weekly check (* pre-tax)
Although I feel we are paying a lot out of pocket, again I realize that compared to so many others, we are fortunate. It was for this very reason that I was actually a little hesitant to share these numbers. I truly feel for those of you who see far more of your checks eaten up by the cost of benefits. I also realize that there are others who pay far less for their benefits, and that is why I put this out here. It isn’t to compare as all of our situations are different but in an effort to be more transparent about our expenses. I admire the bloggers who put it all out there (income, debt, net worth, etc.), and sharing this is one more step in the direction to do the same.
For those of you facing open enrollment, how are things looking for you for 2018?
For us, it’ll be the same coverage but more expensive. We were expecting this. Knowing we are not the only ones facing higher costs makes it easier to bear.
It never goes down, does it? I hate to bring up politics, but prior to the ACA, our insurance was much better and also much cheaper.
Not happy with our options for next year. Same plan as now, but higher premium. The only saving grace is that the deductibles are much lower. Still not what I would consider “affordable” for a family on our income, especially after the costs of premiums alone, but what can you do!? I’d almost rather go the self-pay route and pay a fine for not being insured, but then I consider all the worst case scenarios, plus I’m too risk-averse to do that. I think your plan is quite good considering what’s available these days! I wish we had an FSA/HSA option!
Given your high deductible, why isn’t there an option for an HSA? I’ve heard that one can be opened at banks, etc, but other than that, really don’t know much about them. It is crazy that there isn’t a better option out there for your family. 🙁
We kept the same plan, but premiums went up 3%. We still have 4 kids on the plan and one in on long term medical care, so it makes sense for us to keep it as is, but it is expensive. I am like Jane, if it were not for the prescriptions and the penalties, we would go the cash route too!
3% is still a jump. I didn’t calculate our increase as our premiums only went up a few dollars. My fear of going the cash route would be unexpected expenses.
My work enrollment is July, so that is done (but it doesn’t cost me anything). I see DH’s marketplace insurance has gone up $48 (I’ll probably do a post on it LOL). Double check the FSA use it or lose it – I thought they changed that last year, where now you can carryover some of it to the next year, if you don’t use it all
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I thought most everyone had open enrollment in November. Interesting that your company does it in July. No change that I am aware of regarding the FSA. When enrolling, it was highlighted that the funds worked this way. Sure wish they’d change it to rollover.
Mine pretty much stayed the same. I would love to be able to put more into my HSA, but being that I have so much debt, it is not feasible. However, I am able to use my HSA for glasses, and I will have a rollover from my LFSA to go with this. This is where debt sucks because I stopped investing and missing out on employee match. Nor contribute to the maximum allowed for my HSA. Gratefully I am pretty healthy. I did switch from a Dental PPO to a Dental HMO so that saved some money. I always do a buy-up on LTD up to 70% and my employer gives us a group term life. Overall, my benefits cost my $119 per pay period. It is the best I can do at this time.
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That isn’t bad at all for insurance. We went back and forth on whether or not to stop our 401K contributions. When it came right down to it, we chose to keep contributing.
We are on the COBRA coverage for another 12 months so all of 2018. The monthly premium went up to over $1900 for 2018. It was $1771 this year so a 11% increase…EEK! Thankfully we have the RMSA account that Hubs ex-employer provided him to cover the premiums. We have the same deductible before any benefits($3K)as last year. Once we pay $4,500 OOP we pay nothing else so we are on the hook for $7500 OOP & $22800 in premiums(from the RMSA account). That is a shit ton of $$$ IMHO.
And yes, our employer partly paid health insurance WAS also much cheaper before ACA came into being.
After 2018 we are at the mercy of said ACA or individual insurance shopping. God help us! I’ll probably be freaking out come this time next year. I am dreading the following 5 years we have to bridge until Medicare…….
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That IS a shit ton of money! No getting around that one, Sluggy. I realize that there are a lot of people in favor of the ACA, but what they don’t seem to realize is that someone else (people like us) are the ones ultimately paying the price for this crap. I’ve talked to so many who have been financially hurt by the changes made in health care. Sad state of affairs. 🙁
Why is insurance so frustrating? It’s like a big game show- you better pick the right door, without first being able to see behind the door. I don’t understand why there just can’t be insurance to generally cover your health needs, for an affordable price. I understand that physicians are smart, are highly educated and likely incurred a lot of debt and that they should be adequately paid for that. Isn’t there some balance between the 2 needs?
I agree. It does feel a lot like that and every year I pray we pick the right door. I find there is also so much confusion as to what is covered and at what amount. And then there is the discount for having insurance. I always feel bad for those who don’t and are then hit with a much higher price.