My employer pays $12,000 a year for my family's health insurance; on exchange, it's $4,634

[fried eggs]

I checked the subsidy calculator to see what I would be paying if I did not have insurance. Here were the results:

The information below is about subsidized exchange coverage. Note that subsidies are only available for people purchasing coverage on their own in the exchange (not through an employer). Depending on your state's eligibility criteria, you or some members of your family may qualify for Medicaid.

Household income in 2014: 371% of poverty level

Unsubsidized annual health insurance premium in 2014: $4,634

Maximum % of income you have to pay for the non-tobacco premium, if eligible for a subsidy: 9.5%

Amount you pay for the premium: $4,634 per year (which equals 8.05% of your household income and covers 100% of the overall premium)

You could receive a government tax credit subsidy of up to: $0 (which covers 0% of the overall premium)

The premium and subsidy amounts above are based on a Silver plan. You have the option to apply the subsidy toward the purchase of other levels of coverage, such as a Gold plan (which would be more comprehensive) or a Bronze plan (which would be less comprehensive).

Calculator: http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

I'm not sure if it's an apples to apples comparison. I suspect my current insurance is similar to a gold plan. Still, if I were a small business, I would send my employees to the exchange in a heartbeat. Or pay the fine of $3000, which is considerably less than $12,000. I think we're closer to single payer than a lot of people here think. Isn't that a good thing?

[SheilaT]

1. How do you know how much your employer pays?

I suppose the obvious answer is that they let you know, but I've never had an employer supply me with that information. How interesting.

I do know that I pay about $25/paycheck for upgrades and add-ons that I want to the already not half bad insurance I get. I did go on-line to see what I'd have to pay if I earned what I do and didn't get insurance, and it was, around $250/month for a silver plan, if I recall correctly. It certainly seemed reasonable.

[abelenkpe]

4. It's on your W2

at least it was on mine last year.

[SheilaT]

10. Where on the W2?

I'm looking at an old one -- can't lay my hands on my most recent return, for some reason -- and these are the categories I see:

wages, tips, and other compensation
federal income tax withheld
social security wages
social security tax withheld
medicare wages and tips
medicare tax withheld

and then there are two other boxes that have monetary amounts in them that are somewhat mysterious. One says: see instructions for box 12, and the capital letter E, the other simply has the capital letter W. They are two different amounts, the one labelled E is a little more than nine times the one labelled W. The larger one might possibly be around what my company puts in for my insurance, but if it is, they're getting an enormous bargain because it's under a thousand dollars.

How very interesting.

I have a professional do my taxes, because I have investments and stuff that makes if more complex than I want to deal with, so I've never paid much attention to those other odd amounts.

[abelenkpe]

11. At work now

but I can look it up when home around 6:30 pst.

Honestly, think it was new this past year because so many of us at work were talking about it. General reaction:

More in about four hours...

[abelenkpe]

13. Internet to the rescue

check this out:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-W-2-Reporting-of-Employer-Sponsored-Health-Coverage

It's box 12 DD

Apparently a new thing, part of Obamacare, that applied to companies of a certain size last year. Hope that helps!

[SheilaT]

20. Thank you. I have managed to hide my most recent W2 from myself,

and I was looking at an old one. When I can find last year's I'm sure it will be quite interesting.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Wow. Thanks for that info

I didn't realize that was there until you pointed it out (and I just checked mine).

[fried eggs]

8. I'm related to the boss :)

Employer foots the entire bill. I don't pay into except when I'm at the doctor's office.

[leftstreet]

2. Do you currently pay 30% out of pocket on costs?

What's your deductible?

[fried eggs]

7. I just looked this up thanks to your question

General basis of payment 90%; Individual deduction limit $1,500; Family $4,500 per calendar year

[NotThisTime]

14. That is a gold plan, just looked it up for coworker.... only 300 less than what the company pays

[fried eggs]

18. How do you look up gold rates? Do you have to fill out the application or is there

a calculator? Would I be able to half way fill out the application and see the rates before pressing submit?

[roamer65]

3. Way closer to universal, not at single payor yet.

In Ontario, Canada there is only one insurer...OHIP. It is run by the Ontario Ministry of Health. They set all reimbursement rates to all hospitals and clinics. Payment by OHIP is required to be accepted as payment in full...no exceptions. You leave your encounter with their system with no medical debt.

That is true single payor.

[LukeFL]

24. My husband who is a nurse and makes decent money

Have been brainwashed by his employer: private hospital making him and everyone think that ACA will destroy his or other medical professions -/ he thinks once we become dingle payer or universal he won't be paid decent ( he makes 50k) and we are a fan of 4.

How is Canada's medical profession salaries now? How much does a registered nurse makes per year?

[politicat]

25. PDF link below - $31-42/ hour, per nursing union.

http://www.viha.ca/NR/rdonlyres/D516B968-CA74-447F-ACF7-77A9E3DE6B2B/0/BCNursesSalary.pdf

Nights, weekends, holidays bump that by differential. That's for BC, couldn't say for the others.

[cbdo2007]

5. Yes, the more info I'm seeing today, I believe we are much closer to a single

payer type of system than most people here think.

[csziggy]

6. Do employers still get a subsidy for providing health insurance?

It used to be that employers got some kind of tax credit or subsidy for providing health insurance. With the ACA and various changes, do they still get that?

If so, and employers do pay as much more for their employees health insurance as claimed in the OP, is the subsidy large enough to offset the difference?

If not and they decided to stop providing health insurance to their employees, will employers pay the money they save directly to the employees? Or will employers just put the money into their own pockets?

[B Calm]

23. I have never thought health care provided by employers was a good idea anyways. It

ties a person down to a low wage dead end job because of fear of losing health insurance. Employers would just have to pay better wages to retain employees, and that would be great!

[abelenkpe]

9. Mine was similar

For a family of four through a work plan.

I think you're right. Businesses and workers will all see that the rates on the exchange are better. More people signing up means rates will potentially go down further. It is a step towards single payer. It's a big reason why democrats should not even consider negotiating with the republicans.

[cbdo2007]

12. Wow, just checked my coverage vs health exchange as well....

and it's a savings of about $2,500 annual for BETTER coverage through the exchanges. Now of course....I pay waaaaay less because employer pays a huge chunk but I could see many employers out there start taking the penalty and saving money by having people buy their own health insurance and giving them more income for it. Interesting! Thanks for pointing this out!

[abelenkpe]

15. "...and giving them more income for it."

My SIL opted out of her companies health insurance a couple years ago because they were double covered under her work and her husbands. I remember how happy she was. She had given her family a nice raise during a time of economic doldrums.

[DevonRex]

31. This is why people are going to be able to leave jobs they hate, too.

Now smaller companies with better working conditions will be able to compete with larger companies who only offered health insurance as the incentive to work there. And they frequently demanded a very high price in terms of other demands for the "privilege" of that health insurance.

well, now it's not a privilege anymore. People can get a good policy at a good price and work at a smaller company that pays a bit more but doesn't have a company HI plan. And that treats its employees like people.

[hamsterjill]

16. Has anyone else had trouble with this link?

I've seen this link to the Kaiser Foundation on several different places today, but I can't get it to work for me. Maybe it's heavy traffic, or maybe it's something with my computer.

Anyone else experiencing any difficulty?

[Cass]

17. Yes, same here

[hamsterjill]

19. Okay, thank you!!!

I will keep trying.

[SoCalDem]

21. In a FAIR world, the boss wou;d ADD $9K to your income

pay the $3k "penalty" and let you keep the extra..and the boss is out of the medical care business

[cbdo2007]

22. that's exactly what's going to happen in the future.....

this is just the first step in the process

[gopiscrap]

26. Excellent

[enlightenment]

28. Paying for

for-profit insurance is not anything like "single payer".

Remove the profit percentage, give everyone the same basic level of care to everyone, regardless of income or employment status (offer optional pay extra insurance for those who want it) . . . then you're getting somewhere close to "single payer".

[SheilaT]

29. Found my W2 for 2012.

Turns out my employer paid $6,203.28 for my insurance last year. Which seems shockingly high to me. I almost never get sick or need to use my coverage, so I'm in the category of those who pay for others. DO NOT for one minute think that I think that's unfair or unreasonable. I'd much rather be healthy than have to go to the doctor a lot, take medication, get surgeries, and of that, even if it's all "free" meaning none of us pay out of pocket.

I believe in Single Payer as a start. I honestly think we will get there. I think the whole Obamacare thing is going to blow wide open the idea that the system we've had in place so far is the best possible system.

[applegrove]

30. I wonder if such a cost savings would act as a stimulous to the economy?