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JeffH

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lordrel

It is entirely possible that is the cost. Much of it really depends on how much the employer contributes towards it. For example, at my office employee coverage is about $35 a paycheck (every two weeks). However, the actual cost of the premium is around $300 for the month, the company just pays most of it.

Most insurance plans only allow the addition of a spouse or dependent (ie child) to the plan. However, your mileage may very. Doesn't hurt to talk to your HR dept or health plan directly. I will warn you that the premium often goes way up. For example, our companies' full family coverage runs almost $900 a month, and around $500 for just employee and spouse.

I'm one that thinks employees should always take advantage of health benefits, because you never know what will happen. Sure, you could pay cash for the occasional visit, but if something catastrophic happens, it might be tough to deal with, financially. However, if $160 creates too much of a hardship, she can always just chance it. I know in my office we offer a 30% discount to cash patients just because we don't have to deal with insurance.

Newton

Have you looked into buying insurance on your own and not through her company? Companies get group discounts, but generally don't give you much in the way of options. You may be able to find a plan with a level of coverage you are comfortable with that is much more affordable than what her company offers. At the very least, you could get onto a catastrophic coverage plan for a lot less. It basically only covers stuff you would go to an emergency room for, but it would be better than nothing until you can put her on your plan.

Djeet

The premium also varies according to the "health" of the coverred group. If the group being coverred is young, premiums tend to be less than if the group is older. groups that include smokers, and incidence of heart disease or cancer will also have higher premiums.

Your company will likely not cover her until you're married (and even then, your company might not cover her if she is offerred health insurance from her employer).

Have her ask HR about FSA enrollment. Money gets pulled from your pre-tax to fund the FSA so you pay medical/dental expenses with pre-tax dollars; this can be used for office copay, dental visits, x-rays, analgesics, drug copays, uncovered medical expenses, etc.. She needs to act quick, as enrollment into FSA is usually done in the previous december (e.g. deadline by December 15th 2007, for FSA enrollment for 2008), and if you miss the opportunity you cannot get in til next year. Also you lose any FSA money that you don't use, so estimate a little low.

I'd also recommend taking advantage of health benefits offerred by the employer. You could risk it if she's young and physically fit, but then that premium money should be socked away into savings in the event she has unforseen medical expenses.

Dropping Loads

So my fiancee and I are being married in June and went through a similar period this Fall (the difference being that I wanted to get season football tickets in the student section for the Cal Bears instead of health insurance.) When you get "married" by a church (or whatever ceremony), the government doesn't care. They only care about the marriage certificate, which you can have completed at any time. My fiancee ended up deciding that football tickets were not a romantic enough reason to be "married early", so we didn't do it. Your fiancee might also think that it will affect the quality of your wedding ceremony if you are legally married 10 months before the party, but 1) if money is tight, can you afford 10 months of overpaying and 2) you're planning on spending the rest of your lives together. Getting things started right (by avoiding debt) can really help. If you live together, you're essentially married anyway. It is a bit of a strange proposition though so take some time together to think about it.

JeffH

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ElJeffe

If your fiancee wants insurance, she'll probably have to just eat the cost. Getting insurance through her work will be cheaper than buying the same insurance personally, but it may not be the best deal. How often does she really get sick? If she's the type who needs to go to the doctor once per decade, then your best bet may be to either not get any insurance at all and wait it out, or try to find something tailored more towards averting catastrophe - something with high co-pays that pays a decent percentage of hospital stays. Realize, though, that any non-trivial operation is going to run in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, and that even having insurance pay 80% of that leaves you with a ginormous bill. Good insurance policies will have, say, a $250 flat copay for any medical procedure or hospital stay, but those are $300+ per month per person.

If your fiancee is the type who uses medical care somewhat regularly - gets sick a fair amount, has prescriptions, and so on - you'll need to crunch the numbers to figure out what sort of insurance makes sense for you. Basically, it's impossible to give you a right answer without knowing exactly the details of your situation, and even then it's largely a question of what risk you're willing to accept. If it was me, I would just go without for a year and wait to get on your insurance policy, but I never get anything worse than a cold and haven't needed to go to the doctor in, like, twenty years.

ElJeffe

JeffH wrote: »

After looking into it she can't not get health insurance, as a new MA law I was unaware of imposes some pretty hefty penalties if you aren't health insured.

Oh. Suck.

Doesn't the law also provide for subsidies for people who have difficulty affording insurance? Have you looked into that?

JeffH

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VisionOfClarity

There are a ton of different state insurance programs aimed at people who can't afford private insurance and do not want the insurance offered by their employer. All you have to do is go to the state website and tinker around.

And $160 does not seem too high to me especially if she works for a small business.