The Downside of Marriage
Four and a half months in, and I've discovered a disadvantage to being married.
Health insurance.
As a single girl it was easy: take the health insurance offered to me by my employer. Done! If the employer offered multiple health insurance plans to choose from: pick the best coverage that cost the least amount of money (I'm not a big user of health insurance at this stage of my life, so the specific benefits were never an issue for me). Done!
But now options need to be weighed.
Originally, it wasn't difficult. Both of our companies were with the same insurance provider, so we could simply compare deductibles and co-pays and such and call it good. And due to different premium amounts, and different ways our employers paid for our insurance, it ended up costing me less money for more coverage to switch over to his plan.
The new job came with free medical, dental and vision for employees. It was with a totally different network of doctors (a network I wouldn't want to use), but it was free and offered out-of-network coverage, so I signed up fully not expecting to use it. But you never know when the dismemberment will occur, so it's always good to have more coverage.
But now it is open enrollment time at work. And the insurance options have changed. Some interesting facts that I have learned about insurance over the past couple of weeks:
- Older people use insurance more than younger people
- Women use insurance more than men
- Non-profit workers use insurance more than capitalists
- Social Service workers use more insurance than other non-profit types
- A company's insurance premiums are based on the likelihood that their employees will use the insurance.
This is why Microsoft can offer really good benefits to their employees: They've got a lot of young men working for them, who never go to the doctor. My agency gets dinged about every single way you can get dinged, while working on a non-profit budget, which makes covering healtcare for its employees a challenge indeed.
So now we've got options. Some of which come free to me, others of which may cause me to kick in some of my paycheck. If I didn't have coverage through Sweetie's work I'd just take the free option, even though it's in the netword I'd rather not use, and be happy. But that coverage may not cover any doctor I might go to, unless it's in an emergency room. And would it be better for me to eschew all medical coverage, so I can get the premium dental coverage, knowing that I've got a periodontal referral and gum grafts to look forward to in the new year? Or should I take the 2nd insurance option, who may have doctors that overlap with the current plan, so might actually be of use to me, but then I have to pay for dental coverage, or just go with the coverage I've got through Sweetie.
TOO MANY OPTIONS!
Oh yeah, and the forms are due on Tuesday. Blech.
Health insurance.
As a single girl it was easy: take the health insurance offered to me by my employer. Done! If the employer offered multiple health insurance plans to choose from: pick the best coverage that cost the least amount of money (I'm not a big user of health insurance at this stage of my life, so the specific benefits were never an issue for me). Done!
But now options need to be weighed.
Originally, it wasn't difficult. Both of our companies were with the same insurance provider, so we could simply compare deductibles and co-pays and such and call it good. And due to different premium amounts, and different ways our employers paid for our insurance, it ended up costing me less money for more coverage to switch over to his plan.
The new job came with free medical, dental and vision for employees. It was with a totally different network of doctors (a network I wouldn't want to use), but it was free and offered out-of-network coverage, so I signed up fully not expecting to use it. But you never know when the dismemberment will occur, so it's always good to have more coverage.
But now it is open enrollment time at work. And the insurance options have changed. Some interesting facts that I have learned about insurance over the past couple of weeks:
- Older people use insurance more than younger people
- Women use insurance more than men
- Non-profit workers use insurance more than capitalists
- Social Service workers use more insurance than other non-profit types
- A company's insurance premiums are based on the likelihood that their employees will use the insurance.
This is why Microsoft can offer really good benefits to their employees: They've got a lot of young men working for them, who never go to the doctor. My agency gets dinged about every single way you can get dinged, while working on a non-profit budget, which makes covering healtcare for its employees a challenge indeed.
So now we've got options. Some of which come free to me, others of which may cause me to kick in some of my paycheck. If I didn't have coverage through Sweetie's work I'd just take the free option, even though it's in the netword I'd rather not use, and be happy. But that coverage may not cover any doctor I might go to, unless it's in an emergency room. And would it be better for me to eschew all medical coverage, so I can get the premium dental coverage, knowing that I've got a periodontal referral and gum grafts to look forward to in the new year? Or should I take the 2nd insurance option, who may have doctors that overlap with the current plan, so might actually be of use to me, but then I have to pay for dental coverage, or just go with the coverage I've got through Sweetie.
TOO MANY OPTIONS!
Oh yeah, and the forms are due on Tuesday. Blech.
posted by Swankette at 8:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home