According to my wife who is involved in the benefits business, a plan like POS A is about $2,400/ month for a family plan and the B plan is much higher. She said, "Welcome to the nearly real world." The real world, to her (and she says you can verify employer/employee costs with Kaiser and other independent surveys), pays much more towards the cost of this type of insurance.

I realize it's a big jump now, but it's still less than the rest of the working people pay (and most don't have such rich plans as these--there are less costly, just as effective plans out there). Plus, with health care reform there is first dollar coverage for wellness. So you won't be paying for all the co-pays for wellness visits and immunizations. And there are limits on annual and lifetime benefits. Because Spirit changed the cost sharing, it's not grandfathered under health care reform. All the aspects of the law apply to the plan, regardless of what the CBA says.