Over 5k a year for kid's insurance?

[sheepstache]

I'm asking for a friend, let me know if there are other details I need to provide.  She is having a baby in a couple months and insurance through her job will cost about $430 a month. 

First of all, is this nuts?  Based on other threads about how much a kid costs this seemed high to me but maybe no one was including health insurance. 

Second, what are the other options?  She and her husband make about 75k total.  This is their first kid.  The husband's insurance would be a worse deal than hers.  This is in New York.

Much thanks for any ideas.

[MayDay]

Sadly that sounds reasonable. 

Most likely it is set up as "defendants" or "children".  So if she has more kids, it becomes a more reasonable price on a per kid basis. 

Often companies subsidize the employee health insurance, but either don't sibsidize depend ants at all, or to a lesser degree.

[Gin1984]

Sounds like her job does not subsidize much, or at all, dependent health insurance.  There is a reason kids can be expensive. 

[MayDay]

The traditional model is to offer employee, employee plus spouse, employee plus children, or family.  I have heard of some companies going to a model of employee, employee plus one, employee plus two, employee plus three or more. 

But spouses are typically more expensive than insuring kids, so that wouldn't help your friend anyway.

[sheepstache]

Cool, thank you for letting me check on this.

She's fortunate she says because the company absorbs like 90% of the cost for her as an individual.  It's just for the kid it's 50%.  She did look into whether it would make sense to put the husband on as well for the "family" rate but for their situation it doesn't look like much of a benefit (thought it is nice to know there would be some savings on a per person basis if the husband lost his job).

[usmarine1975]

At the very least have your friend seek out a Health Insurance Broker.  It's possible that she could get a better plan privately but would depend greatly on the coverage she selects or the self insuring options she takes on.  We use a high deductible plan through my wife's company and it works well for us.  At the least she could find out more about the plan she has and the other options that may or may not be available.  Never hurts to shop it out.

[Emilyngh]

Yeah, unfortunately, this doesn't sound out-of-line.

A policy for an individual at my job is like $150 a mo.  The family plan is $500.   Good news with the family plan (I don't know if this is the case for her) is that it covers spouse and as many kids as you have.   So, for example, after having our daughter, we added our step daughter to it since she could be covered for no additional cost and saved on child support.   So, if she has more kids in the future, there's the chance they could be "free" (if it's this type of family plan).   

Additionally, at least it's pre-tax and the additional tax exemption and child tax credit could wind up saving her close to what this will cost.   She should estimate the effect on her taxes to hopefully keep in mind when estimating the effect of the baby on her budget.   

Also, for comparison, she might want to look into one parent and the kid going on the ACA.   If she qualifies for work insurance, she won't qualify for any subsidies, but depending on the plan details it may wind up working out better for an adult with child to get ACA unsubsidized (keeping in mind that then these premiums won't be pre-tax) than what she now has offered through work.

[kimmarg]

Sounds pretty normal.

Not you are not eligible for the ACA exchanges if yo u have insurance through work and it doesn't cost over 10% (??) of your income. When they expand it to everyone I'll be first in line!

[Emilyngh]

Sounds pretty normal.

Not you are not eligible for the ACA exchanges if yo u have insurance through work and it doesn't cost over 10% (??) of your income. When they expand it to everyone I'll be first in line!

This is if your individual rate costs more than a percentage of your income.   There is no cap on family rates.   But everyone qualifies to get ACA, just not the subsidies.

[feelingroovy]

If she's in NY tell her to look into Child Health Plus.

It's low cost health insurance for kids only for moderate income families who don't qualify for medicaid.  My kids have had it for years and it covers just about everything.

For a family of 3 at her income level it would cost $60/ month.

I can't figure out how to copy a URL on my phone but you can find it easily with Google.

[Will]

Most likely it is set up as "defendants" or "children".  So if she has more kids, it becomes a more reasonable price on a per kid basis. 

Often companies subsidize the employee health insurance, but either don't sibsidize depend ants at all, or to a lesser degree.

I don't think they are considered "defendants" until they go on trial.

Do they sibsidize other kind of ants?  Doesn't seem fair to discriminate against the depend variety!

Just teasing!  ;)