It’s open enrollment again.   We were pretty sure we weren’t going to change our plan, but my husband brought home the explanation of benefits for me to take a look at.

There are 4 different plans, and we have the cheapest one.  Right now we pay $62 a paycheck (biweekly), which I don’t think is bad at all.  $124 a month for health insurance for 4 people is pretty good.   Our coverage is basically a $20 copay and 100% coverage for all the basic everyday stuff.  Like check ups, immunizations, urgent care visits, office visits, ect.  Then 60% of everything else.  Two things really caught my eye here.  A trip to the ER has a $50 copay and then only 60% coverage.  And for maternity care they only pay 60% of the delivery.  Prenatal and postnatal care is 100% covered, but the actual pushing the baby out is only covered 60%.  Which I’m pretty sure both those things have changed for this year.  They certainly paid for my delivery and ER trip when I was pregnant.  Anyways, it has a 2 million lifetime maximum and $5,500 max out of pocket per person.  The deductible is $1,000 per person/ $3,000 for the family.

There are 3 plans above this one, each one costing about $40 more a month than the previous one.  They are basically the same but the more you pay the higher percentage is covered.  We get 60% coverage, if we wanted to go up a step, we could get 70%.  Two steps up, would get us 80%.  Each step up also has a lower deductible and max out of pocket.

The best plan that is offered would cost us $179 a paycheck.  We would have a $20 copay when we went to the dr, but everything that they cover is covered 100%, basically.  It has a 2 million lifetime maximum benefit, $1,500 max out of pocket per person, and no deductible.  Nice, I wish we could afford that.

The only thing that would make me consider switching plans would be to get more coverage for prescriptions.  But all 4 options have the same coverage.  We pay $10 for a month’s supply of generic meds and 25% of brand name drugs.  Which for us we spend $30 a month on prescriptions.  So I would be willing to up our premium if we were going to save money at the pharmacy and get some additional coverage.  But since they don’t offer a better prescription plan, we won’t be switching.

So everyone… keep your fingers crossed that no one ends up in the ER.

I’m curious to know what everyone else is paying and the coverage you get.

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This is a guest post from Living Almost Large. We traded posts about our thoughts on health insurance. My thoughts on Medical Savings Accounts are posted over at her site. I hope you enjoy them both!

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I was contemplating about medical care and health insurance, and how only the US is birth control not free.

Paying for birth control?

Why is it that if you have medical insurance in the US, a woman still has to pay for birth control? It seems interesting that the health insurance industry, will charge women a monthly co-pay for birth control. I mean everyone knows it’s cheaper to prevent pregnancy than it is to actually have a child. Of course that is not even including covering all medical costs and insurance on the child from age 0 to 18.

So then why is birth control in the US not only strictly regulated but expensive to boot? I see many women on tight budgets who cannot easily afford the $20 or $30/month co-pay, yet having a child would be more strenuous on the family finances than preventing bringing another child into the world.

Shouldn’t insurance companies prefer to give away free birth control because they save money by not having to insure another family member? I have to wonder if part of the reason for “unplanned” pregnancies is people being “thrifty” and trying to use less expensive methods of birth control than a monthly hormonal contraceptive? And said methods don’t work as well?

I am all for frugal living, but birth control should be the last place you scrimp on. And if so many women are trying to prevent hurting themselves and their families financially by not having kids, why are insurance companies making it so costly?

Every other socialized and westernized country makes birth control free. They view it as a form of population control on our already overburdened planet. So what is driving this? Is it the view that it’s wrong to prevent conception?

What do others think? Should it be free and covered by insurance? And more affordable for those without insurance?

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As soon as your name is put on the first mailing list of new or expecting parents you start getting advertisements for life insurance on your baby. This has always made me kinda crazy. Kids don’t need life insurance!

The point of life insurance is to replace your income (or services, for the stay at home parent) so that your dependents can continue their standard of living. So unless your newborn has an income and dependents they don’t need life insurance.

First off, it is very unlikely that the worst will happen. But if it does you should use your emergency fund to pay for the funeral and other costs. I really can’t think of a bigger emergency that could occur. If you don’t have an emergency fund then you should be saving every extra dollar and not buying things like life insurance on your kids.

One advertised benefit of baby life insurance is that it’s a whole life policy. Which means that it doesn’t expire like term life does. Most financial planners avoid whole life policies even for adults. You pay more for whole life because some of your payment is invested which builds the cash value. Financial planners argue, and I agree, that you should pay less for the life insurance and invest your money yourself.

Another stated benefit is that between the ages of 21 and 28 the child has the option to double the amount of their policy no questions asked. Which means that if they are uninsurable because of a disease they can still get life insurance. First off, it’s highly unlikely that at age 21 they will be ill enough to be uninsurable. And secondly, even if they double their coverage, it still isn’t very much life insurance. The largest amount available with the Gerber life insurance plan is $35,000. So, at age 21 they would only have $70,000. That isn’t going to be enough if they have children. They would still need to buy more life insurance.

The only good thing I can say about this type of insurance is that it isn’t very expensive. A death benefit of $5,000 is $3.18 a month for a newborn. The most expensive plan they offer, according to a flier I received, is a death benefit of $35,000 for $33.04 for a 12 year old. I guess if you are debt free, have a fully funded emergency fund, retirement plan, and college fund and you still wanted to buy life insurance on your newborn I wouldn’t try to stop you. But unless you fall into that almost non-existent category, I ask you to think twice about this purchase.

Picture by: sean dreilinger

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