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It's open enrollment time. As employees nationwide peruse their benefit options, experts say prepare for 'shockingly' higher costs.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's open enrollment time at work. Prepare yourself. Starting in 2010, your employer is making sure that when it comes to paying for your health care, you're going to be sharing much more of the burden.
"The headline is greater cost sharing," said Tom Billet, senior consultant with human resources consultancy Watson Wyatt. "That means higher [employee] contributions, higher deductibles, or both," he said.
In 2010, employ
"Most people are shielded from the true cost of care because all they pay when they go to the doctor is a $15 to $20 co-pay," he said. "To me the catch phrase in 2010 will be 'Taking responsibility.' "
Consumer advocates, however, aren't thrilled with these declarations.
"We recognize that this is a hard economy," said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, deputy director of health policy with Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy group.
"We know that medical debt is growing. We know that [employer-based] coverage is thinning," said Fish-Parcham. "This is a really difficult environment for everyone. That's why we're all looking forward to health reform."
Here's what to expect
So how are employers tweaking health care benefits options in 2010? Here's the rundown:
Higher out-of-pocket costs. "Employers and employees will face shockingly higher [health care] costs," warned Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, whose members include Fortune 500 companies such as American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and IBM (IBM, Fortune 500).
Originally posted by Bombeni
Oh jeez, what is next from this evil regime government? THe dude promised change, well when he gets through with us, CHANGE is about all we are going to have in our pocket.
Originally posted by buddhasystem
Originally posted by Bombeni
Oh jeez, what is next from this evil regime government? THe dude promised change, well when he gets through with us, CHANGE is about all we are going to have in our pocket.
Before you hyperventilate too much, let me just point out that a similar increase in rates occurred last year, without any fanfare. We had a meeting here at work to discuss this. It's only because of the proposed legislation that people started paying more attention to this, this year.
Again: same thing happened before Obama. Don't call this "evil regime", this sounds either silly or disingenuous, or both.
Originally posted by marg6043
something that I have been telling that is also unconstitutional because no where in the constitutions said that we are to support private entities by congress mandate.
Originally posted by St Udio
company sponsered health plans are a part of your wage package that you accepted when agreeing to work.
If the employee's costs have risen in that health insurance package,
then the take home pay must therefore increase, or else your contracted wage agreement is in default by the employer.
You could shop-around for other health insurance that is not part of the employer package... but that action would mean that you elected to default the wage/employment agreement. and the employer would not be obliged to 'make whole' your wage package contract.
~come on guys~