Rising Health Care by Employers? Obamacare?

[EEEliminator]

Anyone experiencing revised health care plans by your employer due to the so called Cadillac tax provision in Obamacare? We've just received our 2016 benefit plans which per my company is to avoid the excess taxes due in the coming years.

We have 3 options and none of them are very attractive. The changes are quite dramatic with huge out of pocket expenses for anything outside of preventive care. It doesn't seem to start paying until the deductible or maximum out of pocket expenses are covered. Which for a family plan are $4,500(per person) and $9,000(total) respectively...

I also wonder how these new plans workout with covering injury in motorcycle accidents... Emergency room visit is $3,500 - $2,000 depending on the plan, who normally covers the emergency transport to the hospital?

It seems that the theme is that if you don't need anything outside of preventative care it'll be cheaper. However, if you do its going to cost an arm and a leg.

We have an online presentation coming up where we can ask questions. Anyone else have similar experiences or concerns with changes in their coverage? Supposedly these new regulations are supposed to only effect a small percentage of "affluent" individuals :rolleyes I haven't yet talked to anyone who is seeing changes like this.

 

[UDRider]

Mine didn't go up by much. Maybe it doesn't follow under Cadillac plan?

Looking at costs of employee + 1 sps/dp + 1 child it's 6k a year. Annual Deductible is 500 individual, 1k family, 15 copay, 90% specialist visit covered. Out of pakcet maximum is 1.5k individual, 3k family. Ambulance services 90% covered, emergency room (not followed by admission) 90% covered.

I looked at most expensive plan through Cigna Primary Care Plus.

I have Kaiser and I am alone, so cost is 420 a year.

 

[Eldritch]

Yes, our mega-Cadillac plan that was 100% paid for my the company is being eliminated in 2016. Thanks Obama. Now I got to choose between other lesser coverage options that I have to pay some out of pocket for.

 

[EEEliminator]

Mine didn't go up by much. Maybe it doesn't follow under Cadillac plan?

Looking at costs of employee + 1 sps/dp + 1 child it's 6k a year. Annual Deductible is 500 individual, 1k family, 15 copay, 90% specialist visit covered. Out of pakcet maximum is 1.5k individual, 3k family. Ambulance services 90% covered, emergency room (not followed by admission) 90% covered.

I looked at most expensive plan through Cigna Primary Care Plus.

I have Kaiser and I am alone, so cost is 420 a year.

We have Cigna plans too (previously blue shield), the OAP I believe is the most expensive with lower deductibles and a higher monthly. They recommend the High Deductible Health Plan for families which doesn't make sense to me. I really wish we had a Kaiser plan option! This the the first job I've had without Kaiser.

 

[UDRider]

Sounds like more an employer issue. Maybe they can't leverage as much as a bigger company?

 

[Yakoo752]

I pay $1700 annum, $0 deductible, $20 copay - Kaiser HMO

(needed to remove my FSA contribution)

 

[mikev]

I just looked.

HMO (Kaiser) is going up 4 dollars a month.

 

[EEEliminator]

Sounds like more an employer issue. Maybe they can't leverage as much as a bigger company?

Its a good sized company with offices world wide. I think they just took the extreme route to avoid any costs. I'm wondering if they're also getting some extra savings on their end using Obamacare as a excuse?

 

[ohio]

Its a good sized company with offices world wide. I think they just took the extreme route to avoid any costs. I'm wondering if they're also getting some extra savings on their end using Obamacare as a excuse?

Maybe a little bit of both. Plans were going up 15-20% per year before ACA/Obamacare, and have continued to rise at that rate after. Plenty of folks are either interpreting that increase as related to ACA or using ACA as a cover to implement lower cost plans. However, in the case of the "Cadillac tax," that is in fact a new cost directly related to ACA, so it is fair IMO to pin (at least some of) the additional expense on ACA.

 

[Eldritch]

I'm going to miss my $5 pays everything HMO.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

Anyone experiencing revised health care plans by your employer due to the so called Cadillac tax provision in Obamacare? We've just received our 2016 benefit plans which per my company is to avoid the excess taxes due in the coming years.

We have 3 options and none of them are very attractive. The changes are quite dramatic with huge out of pocket expenses for anything outside of preventive care. It doesn't seem to start paying until the deductible or maximum out of pocket expenses are covered. Which for a family plan are $4,500(per person) and $9,000(total) respectively...

I also wonder how these new plans workout with covering injury in motorcycle accidents... Emergency room visit is $3,500 - $2,000 depending on the plan, who normally covers the emergency transport to the hospital?

It seems that the theme is that if you don't need anything outside of preventative care it'll be cheaper. However, if you do its going to cost an arm and a leg.

We have an online presentation coming up where we can ask questions. Anyone else have similar experiences or concerns with changes in their coverage? Supposedly these new regulations are supposed to only effect a small percentage of "affluent" individuals :rolleyes I haven't yet talked to anyone who is seeing changes like this.

Sounds similar to what my company is offering. Ours changed due to our company getting acquired by another and this year we are switching over to their benefits.

 

[mercurial]

I would guess that a lot of people getting impacted by cadillac taxes work for companies that are full of older, sick people. Plan premiums vary based on your group risk profile, so if you work with a lot of sick people you have a cadillac plan even if you have shitty coverage.

 

[EEEliminator]

Sounds similar to what my company is offering. Ours changed due to our company getting acquired by another and this year we are switching over to their benefits.

The company actually was acquired by another company officially as of the 1st of this year so it is entirely possible that they used cadillac tax as an excuse to overhaul they system.

 

[EEEliminator]

I would guess that a lot of people getting impacted by cadillac taxes work for companies that are full of older, sick people. Plan premiums vary based on your group risk profile, so if you work with a lot of sick people you have a cadillac plan even if you have shitty coverage.

I don't know that this company is any sicker than others I've worked for in the past :wtf

The company is fairly diverse being in the oil & gas, energy, nuclear, mining, pharmaceuticals, construction management, etc... so there maybe high risk sectors that are driving the over all costs up?

 

[corndog67]

I found out the COBRA if I leave my job is $1700/month. Right now I pay $90/week for top tier health plan, saved my ass last year. Next year, the "A" plan is going away.

 

[EEEliminator]

Maybe a little bit of both. Plans were going up 15-20% per year before ACA/Obamacare, and have continued to rise at that rate after. Plenty of folks are either interpreting that increase as related to ACA or using ACA as a cover to implement lower cost plans. However, in the case of the "Cadillac tax," that is in fact a new cost directly related to ACA, so it is fair IMO to pin (at least some of) the additional expense on ACA.

I would've been OK with a 10-20% increase for the same coverage, unfortunately that wasn't an option.

 

[Climber]

Remember how leading up to the 2000 elections the cost of gas went through the roof?

That was intended to make the Democratic side look bad, and it worked along with fat profits for the oil companies.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Insurance companies aren't taking a page out of the same book....make the Obama administration, and by extension the Democrats, look less rosy and set up to abolish Obamacare when they get their boy in office.

 

[EEEliminator]

I found out the COBRA if I leave my job is $1700/month. Right now I pay $90/week for top tier health plan, saved my ass last year. Next year, the "A" plan is going away.

Are you talking about purchasing health coverage independently (Cobra) only if you leave your job or you will be forced to get Cobra because your company is eliminating its health coverage?

 

[dowlinginchico]

I found out the COBRA if I leave my job is $1700/month. Right now I pay $90/week for top tier health plan, saved my ass last year. Next year, the "A" plan is going away.

I dont mean to intrude, but why is your A plan going away?

EDIT: I just realized you said $90 per week, not month...crazy money for that plan

 

[wazzuFreddo]

Looking at my company's benefits, the coverage is actually pretty good, you just have to make sure you have $5k stashed away to cover the costs of deductibles, copay, and co insurance up to the maximum out of pocket should something happen.

You wind up in the hospital, and that out off pocket maximum is blown through and you are deep in the insurance coverage before they even finish the admission papers.