Southwest Health Insurance
 

I have a few questions regarding health insurance at Southwest...

First off I am trying to time my two weeks notice at my current company so that there is no break in health insurance for my family. I received a CJO on Sep 2, but still have not heard back regarding a class date so I'm expecting a class date sometime in November. My question is if you start class in November when will your health insurance take effect?

Secondly I saw in another thread someone talking about a free plan and a plan that costs about $300 a month at Southwest. Does anyone have anymore details about the plans available at Southwest?

Thanks!

Fly,
You should be covered from day 1 at swa and if memory serves you have 30 days to elect which plan you want. The best source of info is the swapa benefits people, NOT the company benefits dept.

If you elect no medical (use wife's ins. or tricare for mil) you will get a $50 kickback per month.

The premiums have been rising to the point that for most people, the choice plan you referenced is no longer the best for most pilots. Take a hard look at the regular plan! The health savings plan HSP is also a good choice but with a very high max out of pocket probably is better suited to guys in the left seat who can afford a bit more risk.

Thank you for the info. What can you tell me about the regular plan? Cost? Out of pocket? Etc.

I VSP'd so I do not have tricare and my wife is still in school so we have to go with a company plan for our family of 3.

Agree with Stitches. You are covered from 12:01am the day you start. Regular plan is zero dollars and is a traditional health insurance plan, not a HMO. It does not cover preventive medical, though, so all those checkups you will have to negotiate with your health care provider for the walk up rate. The company benefits people won't steer you towards this plan, they will talk up the BenefitsPlus HMO stuff. Lots of pilots love the regular plan though. It gives you good coverage and the price is right. Almost everyone who uses it comes out way ahead of paying the premium and copays for the HMO.
I don't really know much about the HSA, but that is an option as well.

I am a military guy, so I take the dental and vision for my family at around 40 a month and they pay me 50 a month to carry my own health insurance.

Here is an older pamphlet. The prices for benefitsplus have probably gone up a little since this was published.

http://www.iam141.org/contract/pdfs/...tGuide2013.pdf

[QUOTE=FLY6584;1969604]I have a few questions regarding health insurance at Southwest...

First off I am trying to time my two weeks notice at my current company so that there is no break in health insurance for my family. I received a CJO on Sep 2, but still have not heard back regarding a class date so I'm expecting a class date sometime in November. My question is if you start class in November when will your health insurance take effect?

Secondly I saw in another thread someone talking about a free plan and a plan that costs about $300 a month at Southwest. Does anyone have anymore details about the plans available at Southwest?

Thanks![/QUOTEs]

If you can't time it just right and do have a gap you have some options:

1. Take COBRA from your old company - that will require you to pay the whole premium (not just your share of the actual premium) but if it is only a couple of weeks it shouldn't be too bad.

2. You can also (if you and the family are relatively healthy) buy a short term medical policy on the open market.

Good Luck and Pray you don't have to exercise either of the above options.

If I recall correctly, only the EMPLOYEE is covered at 12:01am on date of hire. Dependants are not covered until you enroll them... which you can do within the first day or so after starting class.

Not true. Whole family is covered on day one.

COBRA by the way can be purchased retroactively. I/E if the kid breaks his arm, you can apply for Cobra THEN. So you don't need to pay for it unless you need it.

I'm just thinking if I can get my company to call my last day with them November 1st and I'm willing to pay my normal monthly payment through them without them paying me at all for the month of November then I can work it to have no break in coverage.

I don't work for SW....BUT just so you know, your current company's medical plan will remain in effect until the next month...so if you gave your 2 weeks notice on October 1st you're still covered under your current medical plan until October 31st.

This should give you plenty of time to enroll in a new plan and get coverage with no gaps.

So here's a question. At my corporate gig, I pay $600/month for family coverage with a *choke* reasonable deductible and so-so insurance.

What's a realistic monthly cost at SWA for a family (non-military)?

There is a time window after separation though to where you have to take the coverage which is 60 days from the event leading to your COBRA eligibility.

Most comprehensive coverage is around $325 a month for the family plan. There are 3 other options less expensive, including the Regular Plan which is $0 for family coverage.

The Regular Plan cost is $0 for the entire family. The deductible is $300 for the entire family then the plan pays 80%, it pays 100% for generic drugs. Once you have spent $2500 the plan pays 100%. Routine physicals, mammograms, and newborn wellness checks aren't covered nor do they go towards the $2500 out of pocket.

For those of you who are using the regular plan how is that going? I have one child and normal medical bills and stuff. How does it pay with emergency room visits and whatnot?

Oh wow, not bad at all. That's much better than the $700 plan I pay for at my current company.

It's probably not a good plan for a family with plans to have a couple more kids on the way in the near future though. We probably should pay for the $325 plan until we're done having kids and they've all made it past their first couple years of appointments.

Fly you might be surprised how affordable wellness visits and checkups are when you pay your Dr. in cash. Ask for the no insurance or walk up cash rate.

You should crunch some numbers depending on how many kids, and how many wellness visits you plan on having. But we have a couple kids and use the regular plan and I've been very happ with it.

Whatever you do---DO NOT allow your health insurance to lapse. Ever since Al Gore's HIPAA law, insurance companies gain quite a windfall from breaks in health insurance, especially on pre-existing conditions.

Your government helping you to help yourself......or something like that.

This is true. I am in the same situation as you. As long as you are employed on day 1 of that particular month you are covered on your current plan until the end of the month. So if you are an employee on November 1st with current company you are good through the end of November. Also I think you have 60-90 days to choose cobra. May be slightly less but a good amount of time. So even if you have a lapse for a couple of weeks you can "sign up" for cobra if something happened during those two weeks. If nothing happens you won't need it.

A few questions for everyone...... I start next month and I'm trying to get a bit of info.

My situation is I'm married with three kids. I'm leading towards the regular plan discussed previously. Is this plan a PPO or an indemnity plan?

I was also under the impression that with Obama care now all wellness checks must be covered at 100%. Is there some special circumstance that does not apply with this plan? I am also asuming no co pays for sick visits or ER visits would that be correct? Over all sounds like a good plan... Right now I'm on a 90/10 plan but paying 400$ a month. Thanks for the info...

Regardless of which plan you choose. The best advice I could give to new hires at swa re health plans is to call the swapa benefits chair(s), NOT the company benefits department with any and all questions. Both guys are very knowledgeable and helpful!

I was given the option to continue my health insurance with my current company through October, but it would have cost me another $700. Instead I chose to make my last day of coverage Sep 30th considering I start class with SW on October 7th. How would anyone find out that I didn't have health insurance for 6 days?

You can always sign up for Cobra retroactively if something happened.

Exactly. That was my thinking. I'm just curious how or why they would care if I didn't have insurance for 6 days.

I'm married with 2 kids and we use the Regular Plan and have been very happy with it. It is a PPO plan with a $0 monthly premium and very low individual and family deductibles and out of pocket maximums.
The Regular Plan is considered a 'grandfathered plan' as far as the Affordable Care Act is concerned so all of the new provisions are not required, such as preventable care and wellness checks which are not covered. There are no co-pays for any covered services. All sick visits and ER visits are indeed covered.

Great thanks for the info.

Is the regular plan $0 for the whole family? Does it cover sick visits? Are the only exclusions preventive check ups, well checks, vaccinations etc. Just trying to have an idea before we are presented with the info. Thanks.

Yes to everything you said. The Regular Plan is $0 per month for family coverage, sick visits are covered, and preventative care is excluded.

Thank you!

Sorry to revive a half dead necro thread, but MammaBear wants more info on the regular plan if you guys don't mind. I go to class in a month.

On the regular plan what would be the following costs?

Child gets sick, you take them to in network primary care phys? Above poster says no copays for sick visits??? So what do you pay? 80% of visit??
Copay = ? Deductible = ?

Child breaks arm playing on swing?
Copay = ? Deductible = ?

Generic prescriptions (I think I read covered 100%)?

Child has a bad year...how much out of pocket maximum?

Thanks much. We scoured over the brochure posted earlier but could not discern the info for the Regular Plan.

Spooky

I'll do my best to answer your questions.

The Regular Plan does not have a copay, your co-insurance is 20% after you have satisfied your deductible of $200 individual or $300 family. For either of your examples above, those numbers would apply with an out of pocket maximum for your family of $2500.

^^^Everything he said, but let me elaborate more on the preventative care. I am married with a 3 year old child so I was worried about the well baby/child visits. I called and spoke to my sons Pediatricians office and they explained to me that a normal flat rate out of pocket well visit is $110, but that doesn't include shots. So then I asked how much does his 4 year visit cost which has a considerable amounts of shots and she said about $850, however, she explained to me that because we have health insurance that does not cover preventative care we were eligible to take our son to the health department for all of his shots free of charge. So my next question was does your income affect eligibility and then she explained to me that in Florida it is not income based and you are eligible if your insurance plan does not cover preventative care.

My recommendation is do the research and talk to your docs. It was a no brainier for us and we went with the Regular Plan which will save us a ton. Just keep in mind the HR folks will push the other plans and won't tell you anything about the Regular Plan. They didn't necessarily bad mouth the Regular Plan, but they didn't have anything good to say about it. Apparently the Regular Plan is a pre Obama care plan that the company wants to get rid of because it costs them a lot, but the Union fights to keep it for us so do your research and use it folks! I don't want to see the Regular Plan go away! It really is a superior plan MOST of the time.

How about COTM club holders? Any recommendations on the health insurance, dental, and vision options since we have Tricare.

Ok I think I've got it. Example?

My son gets sick and I want to take him to his Primary Care Phys.
For the sake of example:

Doctor visit is $500.
I'd have to pay $200 (deductible) + 20% of $500 ($100) = $300 for his doctor visit.

Same for second Doctor visit we'd pay $300 if Doctor bill was $500?

Then if he has 10 of these visits in a year after $2500 we would not have to pay anything more. And if I have to go to Doctor I wouldn't have to pay anything?

Do I have that right? Very sorry...these terms and nuances are just not something I understand.

Spooky

This is probably why they told us our spouses are welcome to attend the first couple days when benefits is covered. I'm just gonna bring the wife and she can figure it out. I'll just sign the paper and drink some beer.

Close but not quite correct. In your above example your first appointment would cost you $200 to satisfy your son's individual deductible then 20% co-insurance on the remaining balance so an additional $60. The second appointment would be $100 total, or 20% of the balance. Any combination of payments totaling $2500 for all your covered family members would leave any covered procedures at $0 for the rest of the calendar year for all of you. Prescription drug charges are also included in your deductibles and out of pocket maximums, there is not a separate pot of money for them.

Hehe...This^^^^ :D

Perfect! Thanks so much! This is a huge help. Regular plan looks very good and glad to have it as an option which we'll take!

Spooky

Just be careful with that. The company benefits folks talk up the Choice Plus plans but don't really have any info on the regular plan. You really need to talk to swapa benefits to see how it works with your particular situation.
I don't get my insurance through SWA, but those who do really like the regular plan considering the cost when compared to the Choice plus plans which just announced another rate hike.

When's the union drop by for the Q&A during the course of training?

Day two I think is when swapa comes and talks, but to get the best benefits info, email or call the benefits committee chair. His number and email are on the swapa website that will be available to you the first day of class, or should be. They will give you the straight gouge on what you are getting for your money and what may be best for your situation.