Over the past couple years, my employer has trimmed and trimmed and trimmed employee benefits. The medical plan has shifted a lot more of the out-of-pocket expenses to the employee, raised the out-of-pocket-maximum amounts, and decreased the network of doctors, dramatically over the past 2 benefit years.
Water-cooler conversations with co-workers about the benefits vary a lot: Some folks say the benefits are awesome, and some folks say they are terrible and pathetic. I haven't looked at potential new employers in quite a while, and I'm not keenly aware of what medium-to-mega corps are offering these days, so I thought I'd "crowd-source" an answer to the question: How bad (or good?) is this plan from my employer?
The details (specific to my situation):
- HDHP/HSA compatible plan, for me and my spouse.
- Bi-weekly payroll premium paid by me: $65 ($88 premium cost, but then reduced by $23 dollars because I went through their "biometric" screen process.. Privacy invasion perhaps?)
- Company matches the first $500 of HSA contribution.
- Deductible: $2700 per individual, or $3000 for family.
- Co-insurance: After deductibles, we pay 30%, the insurance company covers 70%.
- No Co-Pays for anything. Everything is subject to Co-insurance.
- Out of pocket maximum is $6650 per individual, or $10,000 for family.
- Very small network of doctors. Probably only about 20% of the doctors in my city are in the plan's network. The plan's network excludes most of the doctors at the major nationally ranked research hospitals that are available in this city. Also distressing is that: No hospital-system from the city is 100% in-network, so you have to mix-and-match the care yourself, and make sure each doctor is part of the network.
- It's not an HMO. I don't have to get referrals from a PCP to see anyone else.... But the network is very narrow.
- Zero out of network benefits.
As a Mustachian, the high out of pocket costs don't bother me too much (in fact, I fancy having high out-of-pocket-costs, vs high payroll premiums). However, the biggest thing that perturbs me is the restrictive and annoying doctor network.
What does the crowd think? Is this plan good? Or shite?