(Obamacare etc.) We got the information on how our healthcare is changing Jan. 1 2014

[underpants]

My wife works for a international Fortune 500 company. Currently we have almost no premiums and a $5,000 deductible - cheap pharmaceutical copays and $0 copays for Doctor visits if we go to our PCP.

Effective Jan.1 2014 I am dropped from the policy. IF a spouse works and IF their employer offers health insurance coverage - OFF THE POLICY. This is a part of Obamacare that I knew about (and there was much criticism of) but this is also a flat out cost savings to my wife's employer. Within the US this company employees about 350,000 and this change is company wide.

Also - there is a $150 per month surcharge to smokers - cigarettes, pipe, cigar, dip, chew, and e-cigarettes. My wife and several of her fellow smokers switched to e-cigarettes at the beginning of the year. My wife hasn't had a cigarette in 6 months. She (and they) were LIVID. This also is part of Obamacare but the employer didn't have to institute it.....there is an exemption if they join and complete the smoking cessation program.



My employer has less than 50 employees and our benefits are not even close to that of the Fortune 500 company of course. I have the range of $115 per pay period and a $5,000 deductible to $172 / $3,000 to $177/$1,000. This is the current program. We do have a $1,000 "Bennie card" that we can use towards the deductible or copays. I am not sure of the pharm copays or office visits - I just got the info yesterday. I don't know if they are going to offer coverage next year. We have noticeably been firing employers and now have 47 employees.

All in all this change (my premiums and the smoking surcharge) are going to take $5,000 to $6,400 out of our pockets next year.

[okaawhatever]

1. What state are you in?

[underpants]

3. Virginia - we got a good tip from my wife's boss

Check the credit unions and see what they offer. We should be with a CU anyway (general principles and car loans) so I think now might be the time to switch.

[senseandsensibility]

7. The credit union offers health insurance?

Sorry, I'm confused.

[Recursion]

9. Many larger ones do (nt)

[kenny blankenship]

2. For at least 3 decades, workers have accepted health benefits in lieu of rising wages

while decent paying jobs were exported to coolie labor countries. The cost of education was driven through the roof, trapping classes of working people in a stagnant labor market where their wages were suppressed as a matter of govt and central bank policy. Those who attempt to escape into credentialed professions through the university system are heaped with outrageous debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. For thirty years, in lieu of expanding wages the 99% got credit cards. Now, the debt pyramid has collapsed on the 99%, while the financial class 1% who caused it all got FREE MONEY and a get-out-of-jail-free card. But at least, in all this mess, the 99% had their expanded health benefits.

Now the system is coming for your benefits. It was a natural progression of predation: having stifled wages for a generation the system of profit maximization had no where else to go.

[still_one]

4. If you have that high of a deductable through your employee, you should shop for another insurer or

see what the exchange programs offer.

[Recursion]

10. You can't if the plan is at least "silver" and the premiums are less than 10% of your income

Unfortunately the exchanges aren't open to everybody.

[still_one]

11. That is interesting, I thought for a Silver Plan the insurance should cover 70% of all costs. A

5000 dollar deductable is a lot of money to have to put out before the insurance kicks in. I guess I will need to read more details.

http://101.communitycatalyst.org/aca_provisions/coverage_tiers

However, I would still do comparison shopping to see if a private insurer might give him better rates than his company plan, though I doubt it.

[Recursion]

12. Don't take my word on it; I think the regs have changed lately and I haven't kept up

I know if it provides X level of benefits for Y% of your wages or less, you can't do an exchange, but X and Y are subject to tweaking by HHS.

[still_one]

13. All information is important. It is confusing. Thank you

[Jacoby365]

5. I'm not an expert on Obamacare

but I'm pretty sure that the scenario you describe - where you are forced off your wife's plan because your employer offers comprehensive insurance - is possible with the current laws, and has nothing to do with Obamacare. The good news is that if your employer decides to not offer insurance, you will be covered under your wife's plan. I hope it works out for you in a good way.

[underpants]

6. That is true but the "changes" are being used as the excuse for dumping spouses

Obamacare failed to protect this from happening - no wonder the insurers didn't fight it passing.

Welcome to DU

[upaloopa]

8. i don't underdtand why Obama care should prevent

a company from refusing to pay for insurance for a spouse who has insurance where they work. That has always been the case for any company my wife and I have worked for.
Sounds like you are getting a high deductable plan with a HOA. That's what i have. you can pay up to $3,000 per year tax free I think and the money stays in the account until you use it, both you contribution and your employer's part.
It is a good deal if you don't need to go to the doctor much.

[pnwmom]

14. I'm sorry this isn't working out well for you, but others at your company may benefit --

the ones who don't have a spouse with a better policy.

Now your company won't have to face skyrocketing rates if a couple employees develop expensive conditions. And if an employee with an illness becomes disabled, s/he will be able to get individual insurance without facing a ban on preexisting conditions.