ninerdriver

You could have been a little less overt.

gojo

I didn’t get that from his posts. I’ll revisit them. I do agree with improvements in what we have. However, it’s part of our total compensation package and it’s usually a give and take sort of thing. You understand the value of good insurance because you had better at Air Wisconsin. However, a new hire candidate would probably be more concerned with hourly wage and monthly guarantee. More emphasis was probably put there as a recruiting tool. Sometimes hard to get the right balance.

Blueskies21

The company has been pushing the HSA but if you have one sick (or pregnant person) on a family plan the HRA is much better. The HRA on a family plan still has an individual deductible. So on the HRA you'll pay $1350 and then 20% of costs up to the family out of pocket max. The HSA you'll pay the $2700 and then 20% up to the same out of pocket. The HRA slows the bleeding though if you go all the way thru the out of pocket max the end result is the same.

PotatoChip

Thanks. I’ve been back and forth between those two plans. I’ve been repeatedly told by people in the company how great the HSA is, and all I can think is that they must have never had decent insurance before. HSA’s in and of themselves aren’t bad, but this HSA plan sets you up to bear most of the costs as opposed to the HSA being a tool and tax savings. I digress. In the end I’ll choose one and just deal.

flydiamond

I agree with you that our insurance is indeed lacking (really the entire nation’s insurance is) but understand that an HSA requires a high deductible health insurance plan. You can’t have the Cadillac plan and the HSA together. The deductibles the company’s plan has are the bare minimum deductibles allows by the IRS.

The union should really push to negotiate the premiums for the non HSA plans down to a lower cost share for the employee. Or just negotiate the same health insurance as Mainline (which I understand trails other legacies). Having one benefits administrator would provide some cost savings.

PotatoChip

I would be very happy with this. I’ve never been a fan of HSA’s personally. I would much prefer a better negotiated PPO/HMO plan. But that’s just me

Iceberg

I would have reacted just as PotatoChip did. Maybe old msprj meant to help but his explanation was simple and condescending. When given numbers to refute his point he offered Mr Chip birth control. Then he told him he couldn’t afford children. There’s not a really a good reason to defend msprj in this case (or most.) Maybe there is bad Internet forum blood between these two. That would almost excuse such trollish behavior.

PotatoChip

No feud. I rarely post in the Endeavor forum and don’t know that I’ve ever exchanged posts with MSP ever.

Flogger

This may be a useless post.

I am at 9E, but I use my spouse's insurance, just because she didn't want to switch and it's less expensive for us both to be on her insurance. As a result, I have no experience with the 9E insurance.

That said, I have been on UHC in the past and I found it very flexible, but expensive. The thing is, there's really no way to say UHC is good or bad. The plans are dictated by the company. For example, at one time ASA had UHC and Delta had UHC. The plans were completely different. According to the Delta MEC, ASA had better plans than Delta. Yeah, that didn't last.

Health insurance is certainly a valid criteria when job searching, but it can come and go. The level and quality of insurance definitely needs to be in the CBA. If it's not in the CBA, I wouldn't bank on it. And if it is in the CBA, it could be negotiated away for something else.

It's a booger.

Avroman

Another reason we should all be demanding to have a Canadian style health care system put in place from our government. $11000 for Epi pens is criminal!