Corporate health insurance plans were expanded in the past as a means to not only draw in but also retain high-caliber employees. These plans often come with extended coverage, encompassing elements like additional doctor visits, laboratory tests, and imaging, accompanied by manageable co-pays. However, it’s worth acknowledging that these comprehensive benefits come at a considerable cost, even when considering the employer’s contribution. In today’s world, corporate health plans exhibit a trend towards providing reduced benefits coupled with higher deductibles. This landscape typically offers employees a range of plan options varying in deductible amounts, co-insurance rates, and allowances for doctor visits and urgent care, among other factors. Customization is primarily limited to these variables.

Moreover, when an employee departs from a corporate health plan, they are granted the choice to enroll in COBRA, which essentially maintains their access to the same health insurance plan but at the full cost borne by the employee. To illustrate, if the monthly employee premium previously stood at $300,  which the employer matched with $300, the employee’s COBRA premium would now be $600 per month. This signifies the plan while incurring twice the financial commitment. Additionally, it’s pertinent to note that often, associated life insurance benefits are lost as well.

In contrast, private health insurance plans extend a broader range of options to the insured, frequently at a more reasonable premium. In many cases, it proves advantageous for employees to forego COBRA and instead secure an independent private plan. Doing so can result in notable savings, often ranging between 30% to 50% of the employer’s COBRA plan costs. This approach offers a sensible and financially astute choice. And let’s not overlook the significance of maintaining your life insurance coverage in this decision-making process.

A sentiment frequently voiced is the desire for an all-encompassing health insurance that covers every possible scenario. While that concept is undoubtedly appealing, the truth is that the original intent of health insurance was to provide coverage for hospitalization and surgical procedures in the event of a major medical crisis. To put it into perspective, consider your automobile insurance – it doesn’t handle expenses like new tires, a transmission replacement, or filling up your gas tank.

In times gone by, as businesses aimed to attract and retain top-tier employees, health insurance plans underwent evolution, broadening their scope to go beyond catastrophic hospitalization and surgery. These revised plans featured perks like unlimited doctor visits with a modest co-pay, wellness care, maternity services, chiropractic care, infertility treatments, and sometimes even elective procedures classified as non-medically necessary, such as cosmetic surgeries like facelifts and breast augmentations.

With the escalating expenses associated with health insurance, there has been a shift within corporate plans to trim down coverage for many of these elective, non-medically necessary services. Here’s an example, a friend is employed by a large national corporation. Back when he and his partner were attempting to conceive their now 9 and 11-year-old children, they pursued In Vitro Fertilization, which incurred costs exceeding $30,000 per child. Remarkably, his company fully covered the entire expense along with the complete maternity costs. However, about a year after their youngest child was born, the company made the decision to discontinue that particular benefit, as the financial burden on the company became unsustainable. He regards himself as exceptionally fortunate for the coverage he received during that window.