HELP! Need feedback ASAP

Parabeagle · May 2003

After years of paying 100% premium for employee medical coverage, our company is now exploring the possibility of having employees subsidize a portion of their single-coverage premium. My question is: For those of you who require the employee to pay a portion of their premium, what percentage do they contribute? 10%? 20%? Some other number? We pay nothing toward dependent coverage.

Any feedback you can give me would be GREATLY appreciated. I need to get this information to the boss ASAP as I'm off on a road trip and will be out the remainder of the week beginning tomorrow morning.

Thanks a lot!

sandra_d · May 2003

We've tried to maintain paying 75-80% of the employee only premium, but also pay 50% of the family premium. Good luck to you in making this change, hopefully your employees will understand the need to do this!

sonny · May 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-06-03 AT 01:28PM (CST)[/font][p]We pay 100% but in another life, we were in your shoes. I would start as small as possible with a lot of education. Am assuming you have no CBA.

Parabeagle · May 2003

No CBA and I appreciate the advice. Thinking of wearing my Kevlar helmet and body armor when I announce the change. I found a previous post concerning this subject, which was also helpful and gave me an idea of what I can expect. Going to keep all the sharp objects under lock and key when I brief the troops. I know I'll get a lot of flak even if it's only a 10 or 15 percent contribution.

AnneLa · May 2003

Our employees who opt for individual coverage pay a flat rate of $10.00 per week and for family coverage $25.00 per week. That just went up in 2003 from $5.00 and $10.00 per week. We have 200 employees.

bhamilton · May 2003

We pay 66 2/3% right across the board - dependents and all. We have debated looking at paying for just the employee but for now, we have stuck with the straight percentage above.

qsausagelm · May 2003

Be sure to elaborate on why their premium contribution is now necessary. The cost of medical procedures has gone through the roof, usage has increased, and prescription drugs are now more widely prescribed and cost more. It's either increased premiums or plan adjustments. There are no easy answers any more. Our company pays roughly 75% of the health premium, both for the employee and their family.

Good luck

ritamcguire · May 2003

Our company pays 85% of the actual employee's medical premium and about 50% of family coverage if selected.

Dmurphy · May 2003

We offer employees a choice between 2 health insurance plans.

HMO-Employees pay 20% for individual coverage and 25% if they want family coverage

PPO-Employees pay 30% for individual or family

We also offer part-timers (20 hours) coverage. The employee pays 50%.

mrbill · May 2003

I hope that your co-workers understand that they are some of the remaining few who do not contribute to their Medical / Dental premiums.
We offer two medical plans. We combine the rates, and the Company pays 70% of the combined rate (rounded up/down to an even dollar figure). Then, the employee pays the difference. Based on the variance in the actual rates, for one plan the employee pays 34% of premium, for the other 26% of premium. This insures that the Company does not favor one plan over the other. Good Luck.

maryfmurray · May 2003

We offer two medical plans.

Our HMO plan EE .075% Employer portion .0925%
Employee and Spouse- 45% employee employer portion 55%
Employee and Child(ren)-45% employee employer portion 55%
Family 47% employee employer portion 53%

Our POS Plan EE .15% Employer portion .85%
Employee and Spouse- 49% employee employer portion 51%
Employee and Child(ren)-50% employee employer portion 50%
Family 51% employee employer portion 49%

Our Dental Plan 100% employer contributed for employees only.
We charge for dependents.
Employee and spouse 48% employee employer portion 52%
Employee and Child(ren) 49% employee employer portion 51%
Family 65% employee employer portion 35%

Hope this helps.

Cindy Hanna · May 2003

My company pays 90%. Employees pay 10%.

Employee cost for:
Family is $73.00 per month
Single is $30.00
Employee + Children is $71.00
Employee + Spouse is $71.00

slogan · May 2003

We are a self-insured government entity that pays 75% of the premiums for our employees. They pay 25% of the premiums, this holds true foo all our categories of coverage.

JudyRoy · May 2003

Presently we charge our employees 20%. Several years back, it used to be 15%but with the rising costs, we increased it to 20% five years ago. This past year, we had to change the coverage for dependents. Employees used to pay 20% for dependent coverage as well, but our last premium went up so drastically, that we had to require that our employees pay 50% of family coverage. More and more companies are increasing the employees' contribution.

Don D · May 2003

One of the reasons I quit my last job and came to this new one is the following: Throughout the history of the company, the company paid 100% of the total coverage for the entire family, period. No employee contribution. This was a tremendous value when I accepted the job. On May 1, 2003, they required the employee to pay $540 per month for family coverage. That amounts to a $6480 pay cut, pure and simple. Hell, family cobra there is only %510. Tell me why a family on cobra should have cheaper coverage than the family of an employee. The company is self insured and 'premium' is really a meaningless term in that situation; they just reimburse claims paid by a TPA, plus fees. But, the company is now balancing the entire cost of the health claims on the backs of the employees.

MariaI · May 2003

We currently offer 3 different types of medical coverage, HMO, HMO Direct Connect, and PPO - HMO being the cheapest and PPO being the most expensive. We also offer dental coverage. What we did was take the amount of the cheapest family coverage and the cheapest single coverage and the is the amount the employer will contribute to the cost of the premium. If an employee chooses just the HMO they are receiving that coverage for free, if they choose to add on the Dental the cost of the dental is what they would pay. If they choose the PPO or HMO Direct Connect we deduct the amount of the HMO premium from the PPO or HMO Direct Connect premium and the remaining balance is the employees responsibility. In percentages it works out to be that for a Moderately priced HMO and Dental the employee is paying approximately 30% of the premium.

DeidreFR5 · May 2003

We offer three plans - an HMO, a PPO and an indemnity. We pay 75% of the HMO for both single and family coverage and that dollar amount toward the cost of the other plans. Similarly, we have two dental plans (the difference is in annual amount of coverage). We pay 100% for the lower plan and that amount toward the higher plan (both single and family coverage for both). Hope this helps.

mbeam · May 2003

We pay 75% for family coverage and 77.5% for single. What you may want to bring into the meeting (besides the info on this forum) to back you up are the total cost expended on health care benefits on an annual basis. In addition show how much the increases have been the last several years that the company has absorbed and show the projections going forward.

System · May 2003

When our agency hires new ee's, they go through an extensive orientation and are told at the time of enrollment that the agency pays 100% of health for the ee, but in the future a portion may be assessed to them. So far, we haven't had any problems. Family coverage is paid 100% by the employee. We are a health care organization and have found that most ee's are grateful that any portion is paid for them. They have come from jobs where only minimal amounts to none were paid by the former employer.

I am a firm believer in sharing with ee's exactly why more will be assessed to them. The monies contributed by the ee are tax sheltered (if your company has a Section 125 plan), so they get a small break there. Consider one prescription cost of $168.00 vs a $30 co-pay (if your plan has a drug card)...add several prescriptions or doctor visits and see exactly what benefit the ee enjoys (not a good word, but the only thing that comes to mind). Our agency will probably have to assess a portion to the ee's this next year, which will probably be 20% or the agency will take the stance of the dental plan approach and pay a flat rate with the ee paying the balance. The agency will assess the lesser amount to the ee. Good luck - communication is key.

E Wart · May 2003

E Wart
We are a self insured company with about 215 employees (in 7 states),180 of which are under our insurance plan. We have a PPO medical plan, that I feel is quite good and a dental reimbursement plan which isn't quite as good, but very simple.
We have an acuary calculate our total premium (obviously including the administrative costs, the project claim costs and the specific and aggregate stop loss premiums, etc.) We offer employee, employee plus one, and family coverage. The company pays 75% of the total projected premium costs and the employee 25% if they elect it. This year the weekly premium is $19 for single, $46 for employee plus one and $54 for family.
I will be glad to fax you a "summary sheet" of benefit costs if this would help you.
Its a little difficult to compare costs and how they are paid without knowing the coverages that are offered (under these costs.)
Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more or have any questions. [email]ewarthen@newcombspring.com[/email]

djacobs475 · May 2003

We faced the same situation last year for the first time. Up to that point, the employer paid 100% of the employee coverage. But with skyrocking costs, we had to pass some of it onto our employees.

We have HMO and PPO plans. If the employee chooses the HMO, we will pick up 83% of that cost for the ee only - the employee therefore pays about $40. per month.

Last year, at our open enrollment meeting we explained about the across the board sky rocketing health insurance costs and also showed our employees comparisons that alot of companies nowadays expect their employees to shoulder between 25-40% of the actual costs. So in comparison, our asking for a 17% contribution level from them seemed very little.

And although my boss expected a revolution, most understood the necessity of passing some of the cost onto them. Of course, a few of them complained, but then again, you always have a few of those no matter what.

Hope that helps.

Nat · May 2003

My company pays 88% of employee only coverage and nothing toward dependent coverage. We are forced to look each year at our budget and see what we can afford to continue to contribute. This year, it may decrease. I think you have to look at what the company can afford to pay and make your decision based on that.

lorrie · May 2003

I'm impressed with what I've seen listed here. Our company (155 ee's) is self-funded but uses a TPA to administer our health program.

Hourly employees pay $40 per month for a single plan, and $290 per month for a family plan. This is 16% and 40%, respectively, of the anticipated actual annual cost. One year the actual costs were much lower than anticipated and all employee shares were cut to -0- for the month of December. Unfortunately, I don't expect to see that happen again any time soon.

cebudragonlady · May 2003

On Employee coverage, the employee pays 50% of premiums for HMO and dental. Company does not pay anything for spousal/dependant coverage - which seems to be going up the most! Employee pays 100% for accident/disbility/life coverage for both employee and dependants. Admittedly, employees who have spouses that are also working (and covered elsewhere! )are better off. An employee who has a non-working spouse gets really hit when premiums rise.

Chari

crawfod · May 2003

City employer 270 employees.
City pays 100% for employee coverage, 75% for Emp/Family, 70% for Emp/Spouse, and 68% for Emp/Child/ren.
As we all know, the highest cost is in the Family tier level, so lowering the 100% given to employees to, say, 90% has a very small effect on your total cost. You will more than likely affect morale negatively, and you still haven't helped your employer with significant cost savings. I generally subscribe to the practice of raising co-pays or deductibles rather than having the employees' pay checks affected with higher premiums. If I'm healthy or lucky and never need medical attention, then I would rather have the lowest premium possible.

HELP! Need feedback ASAP

Comments