your insurance costs

[lee1]

HI all,

Just want to know. Do YOU as the the staff RN pay for your medical insurance at the hospital where you work? Do you pay something?? or Nothing??? Is it for yourself or your family???

Do YOU THINK you as the RN should have to pay for your own medical insurance especially if your hospital restricts or penalizes you by making you pay a penalty if you use services away from your hospital?? Is that ethical???

Is it ethical/moral to ask the primary RN at the bedside who takes care of all types of patients to pay for her/his insurance? AND WHAT IF you contract, for example, TB, and then it goes home with you to your family??? Should you have to pay for family insurance???

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I have noticed that your question is addressed to all staff RNs. Even though I am an LVN, I am going to answer your question anyhow. I pay $65 per pay period for Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance. I also pay $2 per pay period for Cigna dental HMO insurance. My previous nursing job offered no health insurance whatsoever.

All of my non-nursing jobs have offered superior health insurance and other better benefits. As a non-union factory worker I only paid $20 monthly for superb health insurance and had free dental coverage. This factory also had free profit sharing plans. I was a clerk at a unionized grocery store that offered free medical and dental insurance to all employees with at least 6 months of service. I was a cashier at a non-union grocery store that also offered free medical and dental coverage to all employees with 6 months of service. Why are factory workers and grocery store clerks more valued than nurses to receive free or low-cost medical coverage?

[SportyNurse]

I pay about $150/month for my family, myself is at no-cost. Everything I have done inside the hospital or at one of the facilities they own (radiology, urgent care) is covered 100%, and everything else is $20/copay, $10/meds.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

'Ok now for my biggest pet peeve, personally as a heathcare professional me and my family should have the best insurance available and at no cost. I should not have to pay any copays for anything."

the reason a high number of healthcare facilities charge is that we USE healthcare. there are people in other fields who have insurance and don't see a doctor every year or every 5 years.......we are generally more pro-active and preventative- we use it.......

[oldornurse99]

Some hospital have several options. No payment if only covering employee. Hospital covers some of the costs if its family coverage. Different plans such as in network plans which are cheaper. I feel we are just like everyone else out there that has to pay for health insurance. My rates are considerably better than the worker down the street.

[sister--*]

My insurance payment for family is nearly $600/mo. Working full time the hospital will pay $200 of it. Consequently, I pay about $400/mo. No dental or optical. $1500 yearly deductable/ $750 a yr. per person. 80%/20% coverage after that. RX card with my co-pay of $10 for generics and $40 for name brand. Health care for network physicians/facility only. If I go out of facility/network then the co-pays become quite a bit more costly and the reimbursement from insurance is much, much less. We can, however, choose our own pharmacy.

No discounts, no perks, no nothing else. Occassionally one of our Dr.'s may hand-out a sample of medication to an employee, however, that's becoming pretty rare, too.

I hear your pain when you talk about the kids that are in college and away from home. They are always out of network....yikes.

Before I graduated I had an instructor that told us as a class that some of the worst insurance coverage is offered by hospitals and clinics. I think she was right!

[weirdRN, RN]

the reason a high number of healthcare facilities charge is that we USE healthcare. there are people in other fields who have insurance and don't see a doctor every year or every 5 years.......we are generally more pro-active and preventative- we use it.......

Okay so we are consumers of Preventative Healthcare. Then when we get older we shouldn't need acute care as much,right?

So the folks that don't use preventative helathcare are the ones consuming more acute care services which are more costly.

Did I say that right?

So why should we pay more for our insurance?

[jetscreamer101]

To cover myself with a PPO, vision, and dental, it ends up around 80.00/mo. If I were to cover my family it would be over 500.00/mo. (facility pays 90% of individuals cost-nothing on rest of family) The entire family(4) are covered under my DH's (does not work in healthcare) insurance plan-PPO and dental for around 400.00/mo. I've had many surgeries and other health problems so it pays for me to be double covered.