<p>Looks like there are several things that I need to check out with HR.</p>
<p>They provide $53 in flex credits per month. I later found that they have a package deal of benefits where they will provide another $55 in credits if he chooses a particular plan (not the lowest cost, full dental and ADD). The net cost for that package would be a little over $50/week compared to getting back $35 if he just got the dental and ADD.</p>
<p>So I need to find out:</p>
<ul>
<li>Is he covered until 26 without conditions under my plan?</li>
<li>What the drop in price is if we drop him from my plan (I don’t think that it matters that much as the amount can’t be more than what he would save and get back because the overall costs to me is so low but it would satisfy my curiosity)</li>
</ul>
<p>There was language about changing due to an event and I would think that losing insurance coverage would be an event.</p>
<p>Not sure this “grandfather” thing still exists…that was the FIRST year of this legislation , I believe. </p>
<p>You might check your state…I know that in OUR state…ALL companies have to allow kids up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ plans. No plans can deny this coverage in this state. AND if a student is off the plan for some reason (like they have their own insurance) and then they lose their insurance (a qualifying event)…the open enrollment period is waived and they immediately can get coverage with the parents again if they are under 26.</p>
<p>Thumper there are still grandfathered plans out there, we have one…I’ve seen several others as well.</p>
<p>bluebayou–in order for a company to offer a group plan they have to pay at least 50% of the premium, by law. Yes, that is an expensive premium for a single person but with the various incentives, etc. it’s in line with many group plans.</p>
<p>I checked our HR site and there’s no cost difference with him or without him. Coverage is until age 26 - they don’t have to be dependents or students. The definition of children is very, very broad - I was a bit surprised at what it includes.</p>
<p>Yes, no cost difference to us whether D on or not…but the more important question is whether she can stay on our plan, given that she does have insurance offered with her new employer. And also, if she is able to stay now, will she be able to accept her employers insurance at a later date, without penalty. I’m cross-eyed looking at all the different websites with varying degrees of information…</p>
<p>My company gives me no deductible, no premium and 100% coverage, but will not cover any kid over 21. They will also cover a “domestic partner,” but no kid over 21. D1 had to get her own insurance with her employer.</p>
<p>Contacting HR people can be very hard to do these days. Most of HR is dependent on websites so the number of employees per HR person has skyrocketed compared to the past.</p>
<p>Maybe so, but to take my own multi-billion dollar employer as an example, I don’t think there is enough information on our web-site to answer all the details.</p>
<p>At least for my company, you eventually get to the right person, even if it goes up the ladder a few steps. Like the time my company had to give me $6000 in free money because they screwed something up with my 401K, you can bet that went pretty high. We have a dedicated HR helpdesk to field calls, of course we have over 10,000 employees.</p>
<p>You can also call your insurance carrier. They will know the answers to these questions as well and they are probably easier to get in touch with vs HR.</p>
<p>The frustrating thing is trying to get verbal/written confirmation of what we think is the correct answer. HR says one thing…but answer from Insurance Co. was not the same. Also trying to figure out if D’s new employer will allow (without future issues) is a little difficult, in that she just has info from offer letter…and doesn’t start until fall. I’d rather she focus on midterms/final year and deal with later. I was just trying to get informed on all pertinent questions in advance.</p>
<p>Our HR site on healthcare is precise and concise - I was quite surprised.</p>
<p>I also looked at the site of our healthcare provider and they provided answers to the general details - they didn’t have company-specific stuff of course.</p>
<p>Not likely to be of much value, unless the ER contracted out the HR function to the carrier. The carrier does not set the employee portion of the contribution. That is set by the employer (or by union negotiation).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Standard description, courtesy of the ACA. Our plan is the exact same.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So are you really suggesting that a single individual plan costs at least $10,400 per year in the OP’s state? A single?</p>
<p>According to Anthem-NH, a single guy’s PPO plan can be had for ~$350/mo.; this includes taxes, et al For the maternity rider, it jumps to ~$1200/mo. In a group plan it would have to be blended, and a lot lower.</p>
<p>That’s correct - the pricing and details are all on the internal HR site and generic stuff is on the carrier’s site. When you log on to your carrier’s site, you can see your claims and resolutions, provider lists, advice for treating common problems, etc. But the company-specific stuff is on the employer’s site unless this is outsourced but I still wouldn’t expect it to be available to anyone other than employees.</p>
<p>That makes for some interesting information partitioning.</p>
<p>If you’d ask me, The only HI that should be offered is one with deductible and copay. A HI that has no deductible and copay encourages poor health habits and gives people a false understanding of our national issues. </p>
<p>No body has asked me :(</p>
<p>DS new company (now part of a consulting company with a presence in health issues) is offering the standard HMO, PPO, with the typical coverage and good deductible, but also they offer a low premium HSA and will kick in $600/yr into the savings account. I had initially recommended that he skip the HI benefit and go out and buy his own but since the insurance is a benefit of employment , he had no choice but to chose one. I didn’t want him to be tied down to a job because of the benefits and believe that he needs the entrepreneurial spirit. He asked me for my opinion :)</p>
<p>bluebayou==unless the company is very small they likely self-insure. In that case, the insurance company administers the plan and while they will only have general information on the main pages of their websites, your plan information should be available on a personal log in area. Also, a phone call to the CS people at the insurance company will help. They will have all the plan details, they will know the various co-pay, deductible information, etc. If the company is large enough, they will have dedicated staff that only works with that company and they will know the plans inside and out and quite honestly, know it better than most HR people. And yes, if the plan the OP’s son is on is a group plan that would be the cost of the plan, however, if you look through the further information provided, the $100/week is not the real cost of the plan, it is half of that and includes dental and ADD. I’m not suggesting anything, the law is the law and if your plan, under federal law, is considered a group plan where the company can take tax deductions for the plan, they have to pay at least 50% of the premium.</p>
<p>Again, premium alone is not the best way to compare plans. What if the new plan has zero out of pocket expenses after you pay your premiums? What if the co-pay on the new plan is half of what the current co-pay is? What if the deductible on the new plan is only $1000 vs $10,000 on the parent’s plan. There are just way too many variables to say “take this plan because it “costs” less”. There also might be other benefits to the new plan, like access to a Health Savings Account that he could stick money in and leave alone if he doesn’t go to the dr., etc.</p>
<p>Steve’s point is well-taken in that I should at least do a cursory major costs check on the two plans. The reasons why they are not that big a concern initially are:</p>
<ul>
<li>We’ve been doing the family insurance thing for 23 years so I have a relatively good handle on medical expenses. We use very little in the way of services outside of dental and vision (mostly for me).</li>
<li>I will pay out of pocket for services or providers not covered by insurance that I want or think are necessary.</li>
<li>Copays for my plan have always been reasonable. I used to always get the lowest coverage plan but this year the medium plan costs less than the lowest coverage plan (price benefit for volume?) so I went with that.</li>
<li>Everyone is in pretty good to excellent health.</li>
</ul>
<p>We do know the real costs of the plan and how much the organization offsets for both my plan and his plan. The combo deal complicates things a little bit. It appears that they provide about $5,400 and he provides about $2,600 but those numbers include dental and add. That’s actually quite a bit of coverage dollar-wise but I think that my work plan family coverage is more efficient. It could be something to do with Massachusetts pricing of policies (MA has a reputation for very high insurance costs) or that individual plans are just a really bad deal compared to family plans. It might also be the relative health of the risk pool.</p>
<p>The plan that we were comparing was the second-cheapest plan that they offered so I suspect that it is comparable to what I have. I won’t be able to get the numbers until tonight as son is in orientation today and will have no time nor access to get me the information. I glanced at it last night and it looked close to what I have now.</p>
<p>They do have a health savings plan as do we. We’ve never used it as our healthcare expenditures have been so low.</p>
<p>I probably won’t see him until Thursday night as I’m sure that he’ll either be working, eating, sleeping, working out or working on his thesis most of the time. I’m happy to get emails, IMs or phone calls.</p>
We have a dedicated HR helpdesk to field calls, of course we have over 10,000 employees.</p>