WWGRMD- health insurance.

My wife just received a job offer at a bank and will start in July. New job has health insurance with dental and vision for both of us. I'm not sure of the finer details like cost and coverage.

My insurance at work is $8/week($416/year), high deductable, with an HSA with $500/year corprate contribution. I like my HSA. I like that I end up $84 ahead each year with my HSA.

I know I need more info on the new insurance, and I need to talk to my HR about mine. The question boils down to do I use the old, the new, or both insurances? If I try to use both, what kind of hell will be unleashed in a battle of who covers what should I actually try to use it?

I "think" it will all come down to what card you use, if you keep both. I don't forsee any issue with being doubly insured.

Using both probably not worth the hassle, if they'll even allow it.

Question can't be answered until you know what the other plan is like.

Being double covered by insurance is not at all uncommon and if there are any continuing medical issues that require frequent trips to the doctor or regular prescriptions it can really help cut costs. There are no hassles. It is easy.

My late wife was type one diabetic from age 12. I made it a point to keep her double covered. It pretty much meant zero copays and almost free prescriptions. Even if a pharmacy didn't want to bill both insurances we just saved up the receipts and mailed them to the other and would get a check in a few weeks. Before using two insurances we would see an average of $500 a month in medications, insulin pump and monitoring supplies. That dropped to like $100 when I got smart and added her to mine.

Jealous of your health insurance!

$90 per week here, I've already paid a few grand in bills and currently sitting on just under $5k in bills...just this year.

Other than that I have nothing to add. lol

There is normally a protocol for which is used first. I have full Family coverage for us and my wife has Single. So for me and the kids it goes:

1. Gov't coverage (I'm in Canada)
2. My Health coverage

For my wife it goes:

1. Gov't coverage
2. Her Health Coverage
3. My Health coverage

If you have double Family coverage, I think the claim for the kids goes to the Parent with the closest birthdate or something like that.

Just have to compare costs/coverage/etc.

If you get double coverage, the one through your employer will be your primary. I don't know if it works the same for medical, but at least for dental there are two potential kinds of 'secondary' insurance when you're double covered. Each retains it's own maximums, so they are additive.

One is where the secondary insurance will cover whatever the primary didn't, up to total amount that the secondary insurance would pay if they were your primary. So if your primary covers 50/50 and your secondary covers 80/20, the secondary would cover the remaining 50% that the primary didn't cover.

The other is where the secondary insurance will cover whatever the primary didn't, up to the percentage that the secondary insurance would have paid if they were your primary. So if your primary covers 50/50 and your secondary covers 80/20, they will 'only' cover the remaining 30% with you still paying the remaining 20%. The maximum are still additive.

I have absolutely no idea how either of these would interact with an HSA, but these are some of the types of interactions between the insurance that you'll need to look out for with your secondary (your wife's) insurance. Then it just comes down to a simple-cost benefit analysis based on your ability to predict the future.

I have both Medicare and company paid United Health Care. In the last 6 months I have had a heart attack and a mini stroke, running up hospital bills of well over 100K. My out of pocket has been less than 500.00. Only procedure not fully covered will be an endoscope in two months. NO complaints at all. Interesting that during both hospital stays I came out feeling very lucky, especially the last time. My roommate had been beaten very badly, had a fractured skull, broken nose and jaw, and could not / would not talk to the investigating police. Yeah, made me feel that I was not that bad off.

We haven't had double coverage for a lon time, but when we did it was a pain in the arse. Each one wa waiting for the other one to pay. My insurance back then was designed by chauvinist pigs, because it provided no coverage for pregnancy. My wife's insurance covered the whole thing except $2. One dollar per day for the difference in a private and a semi private room. The whole thing was less than $1,000. When we got to the second child, the OB/GYN fee was $600 by itself. g

Two questions: Do you have kids? Do either of you have medical conditions requiring constant spending?

In general, single coverage is considerably cheaper than family or married w/ spouse coverage.

IMHO, if you are young and reasonably healthy (and can afford it), treat your HSA like another retirement account and max out the contribution.

You need the plan info to do the math. In directing social services in a hospital I can tell you there is a new phenomenon of people with insurance going broke (high deductible plans with significant coverage limitations). Read descriptions carefully and do the diligence on any required networks and where you have access to care.

The wife and I each had our own insurance thru work and still do after retirement. Reason: Both employers paid most(wife) or all(mine) of the premiums. Now that we are retired we do have to pay 1/2 of the premium, but it is still cheaper than adding either one of us to the others insurance.