I just read about skywest insurance

wheelsup

wheelsup

Well-Known Member
Unless I am misunderstanding this new procedure, holy crap did the employees get crapped on (and so will the rest of us when our companies are forced to do what yours has done in order to stay competitive).

My understanding is this:

You pay a monthly premium, that entitles you to:


  • A $20 co-pay on preventive care
  • $1200/$2400 deductible at which point the company pays 80%
  • The company will contribute a small amount into your account over the next two years, and then nothing
If I am reading this right this is not what I thought it was. I was thinking the company would contribute $$ (on the order of AT LEAST several thousand dollars, after all my company contributes $7,000 a year in premiums into just my coverage, and another $7,000 for my wife) into your account every year, and you would buy insurance or cover visits out of that account.

Instead you're paying a monthly premium for the ability to pay $20 preventive care visits and have an 80% coverage rate above $1200/$2400. That's $100/month on average for single employees and $200 a month for single + 1, which is what my premiums are. But I am covered on 100% except for $15 co-pays paying the same amount.

After 2011 this is essentially having no insurance.

Attached are Skywest memos
 
Yep, it is called a Heath Savings Account (HSA). My wife and I have actually been participating for a few years and haven't had any trouble with it. We actually like it for the most part as we rarely go to the doc and take care of ourselves.

Now, the real trouble comes in a few forms...

#1 - Those who rely on the option to have (or need) a PPO/HMO are getting royally screwed

#2 - If you don't have enough money in your HSA to cover medical expenses it adds up real fast. The company needs to contribute annually. Even Walmart does that.

#3 - The max lifetime benefit for these programs is a big concern. Ours is currently too low.

#4 - Similar to #1, those with kids or regular prescriptions - again expenses add up fast.

I am sure that isn't all of the concerns, but a few big ones. Heck this issue has even brought up the topic of unionization from multiple employee groups here :) :clap:
 
HSA's CAN make alot of sense, without having read The skywest SPD I can't comment on the actual plan- but if you are young an healthy it can actually save you a good bit of money compared to high premiums alone. That being said there are some easy ways to turn something good into sonething horrible. The devil is in the details.
 
Like everyone has said if you are single and healthy it isn't a big deal and may even be beneficial to use this type of plan. However if you are married and plan on having kids or already have kids this is not something I would want to be a part of. At RAH we have an option of a spending type account or the Blue Cross deal that I don't know too much about. The BC one is a standard deal but way too expensive in my opinion and I believe the spending account option is similar to Sky Wests. I don't know much about our options because I have always been on my wife's insurance.
 
The question is what do you spend on premiums vs how much you would be liable for with a HSA and a high deductible plan. If you are single and paying $300/mo in premiums that's $3600/yr before you ever see a doc of fill a rx. With a regular plan there are still deductibles. You could easily hit your deductable of $1500 + premiums of $3600 in a single year with an illness or a broken arm. With an HSA you may spend $3600 a year total as well but the money in your HSA has been contributed to over the years. Of you have a kid on the way or a family at home you really need to crunch numbers if you have both options. At the last retirement and insurance confrence the delta chairman showed the examples of their options and many times the HSA was more cost effective with a family and high deductibles- but the details of what your plan covers makes a huge difference. The HSA was designed for those young and healthy- keep that in mind, but companies are always trying to unload health costs and plan liability which can make that initial gov't design into a bad situation for an employee.
 
I believe you can use your HSA to buy just about any health related item too (asprin, bandaids, etc) tax free.

Individuals need to do the math comparing normal healthcare premiums vs HSA premiums in a "normal" healthy year, and also normal healthcare costs vs HSA costs in a "worst case" year, and decide if its right for them.
 
Clocks said:
I believe you can use your HSA to buy just about any health related item too (asprin, bandaids, etc) tax free.

Individuals need to do the math comparing normal healthcare premiums vs HSA premiums in a "normal" healthy year, and also normal healthcare costs vs HSA costs in a "worst case" year, and decide if its right for them.
Click to expand...

The problem is, as it stands in 2012 SkyWest employees won't have a choice.
 
At my first full time job, I got:

$2500 deductable
$25 co-pay for doctor's visits
80/20 coverage after the deductable
I paid 75% of the premium
No HSA

This seems better than what I have, and much better than a lot of individual plans.
 
Is SkyWest self-funded? What I mean is that the insurace company is more of a broker by offering their medical network/negotiated pricing and passes the insurace payments on to your employer. Comair is self-funded and is finally changing our insurace coverage which has pretty much remained unchanged in the last four years. I'm currently in a PPO+ which is a 90/10 funded program. They're saying to be competative with other regional carriers who spend less money per employee, that they are changing over to an 80/20 and HSA coverage. With my son, wife and myself on regualr perscription medication, there's no way I could do an HSA type plan.
 
BobDDuck said:
That may be, but it's a HUGE step backwards from what the company currently gives them.
Click to expand...

Now if we could get our management to realize the same :)

With the large amount they are saving on annual premiums, it would be easy to contribute to our HSAs and give us money yearly.
 
I guess health insurance is now up there in the "we gotta remain competative and have a cheaper operating cost" column.:mad:
 
I'm not sure how the SKW HSA compares to what they currently have, but on the ASA side, every worst case scenario I have looked at has the HSA coming out ahead. I'm not there to take the extra bribe they're throwing in, but that would just be extra gravy to me! And before I get blasted, I was on the ASA HSA before the furlough and I have a family and we had multiple problems last year, including surgery and still came out ahead. The new terms for the 2010 HSA are more favorable, so on the ASA side at least, it's hard to understand the uproar.
 
Well, I ran the numbers, and for me, this would be a HUGE dent in the pocket book. I'm paying $150/mo right now in premiums for me, my wife and my kid. The wife is on brain meds for biopolar disorder, and that's two recurring prescriptions a month right there. Without insurance, it's over $100 per medication. So, that's $200 a month right there. Every 3-6 months she has to go to her doctor to get them refilled, and that's another $150 without insurance. As it stands, I'm paying $15 a month for the prescriptions and $25 when she goes to the shrink. Any other doctor visits are only $10.

That's just ONE of us. If I get sick or my kid gets sick, that would be in addition to what we're already paying. So, this kinda deal for us would mean bad news.

Now, if it were just me, that would be different. I seem to have the immune system that would destroy Tokyo if given the chance, so I'm rarely sick. But with the wife and the kid, I'd want some sort of decent health coverage. If you've got a baby on the way, you're gonna need to load up that HSA. That is NOT a cheap expense......
 
kellwolf said:
Now, if it were just me, that would be different. I seem to have the immune system that would destroy Tokyo if given the chance, so I'm rarely sick. But with the wife and the kid, I'd want some sort of decent health coverage. If you've got a baby on the way, you're gonna need to load up that HSA. That is NOT a cheap expense......
Click to expand...

Again, my only experience was ASA's HSA, but any major expense would work out nearly the same under both the PPO and the HSA. Both plans have an out of pocket max of around $6K. The PPO has a $600 deductible and the HSA has a $2400 deductible, but the HSA is $160 less per month ($1900/yr) so if you have a major expense, the HSA will actually save $100. After the deductible is reached, both plans essentially act the same - roughly 20% of the total bill until the out of pocket max is reached.

Not sure how other plans are structured, but in ASA's case, I can't see how anyone would get burned by a major expense on the HSA but not the PPO.
 
gtpilot said:
Both plans have an out of pocket max of around $6K.
Click to expand...

Another funny/sad/interesting tidbit...upon rollout of our new plan, the annual max out of pocket was $10,000. Within a day or so of LOTS of angry emails it went down 4k to $6,000. No way that could be negotiated is such short order. It was likely planned from the beginning to make the company look better to us 'common folk'.
 
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