Health Insurance Coverage Cuts to Come?
This week The Wall Street Journal reports that since the start of the recession, “thousands of employers have cut pay, increased workers’ share of health-care costs or reduced the employer contribution to retirement plans.” While many workers may have believed this to be a temporary move, consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that two-thirds of big companies that cut health-care benefits don’t plan to restore them to pre-recession levels, according to the paper.
Consider this staggering stat from The Journal, which sheds some light on the cost concerns: Employers that offer health insurance to workers will spend an average of $6,700 per employee on it this year, nearly twice as much as in 2001, according to consulting firm Hewitt Associates.
If your current employer stopped contributing to all or part of your health insurance premium, could you afford to cover it on your current budget? How would you adapt?
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My employment was contractual in nature and ended mid Spetember 2009; while in the process of activating COBRA health benefits, the former employer decided to no longer participate in Group Health Insurance Plans. That means there will be no COBRA for me. I have pre-existing conditions so the only option was to obtain a “guananteed issue” health policy at a cost of $886/mo to insurance just myself. This will come directly out of my savings each month until I can find other employment with group health benefits. The former employer is under no obligation to subsidize or assist in the payment of the premuiums.
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If I lost my healthcare coverage, I would go bankrupt. I can not afford private insurance. I would probably need to quit my job (or get fired) so that I could qualify for state insurance (medicare).
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If not provided at work, given my salary, despite not overwhelming obligations or debts, would have to go w/o insurance, and I’m in mid 50s. Scary.
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