Friend's insurance rates just went from $200/mo to almost $600/mo

[AllyCat]

Her husband got this job saying they would provide health insurance for the family with a certain percent from him pre-tax. Pretty standard, although they would provide NO information about the plan until he finished his probation. Probation is over and they start paying the family premium. A few months later, he's called into the boss' office to hear that they were charged the wrong rate. Apparently, everyone else at this interstate company is taking single coverage only and they just weren't used to someone paying a family rate, which is apparently, much higher. So their premium has gone up over $400 a month for family coverage.

This is not UnitedHealthcare or any other of the big, big companies. I have the same company and I pay the same family rate as they do. Or as they did.

It just sounds fishy that all of a sudden, Company X "discovers this". After they have been going to routine care, he has a some health problems, and they are expecting a baby. Seriously. Is there a way to find out more? Insurance commissioner? He doesn't want to dig too much and lose his job.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. My Cobra is going from 203 now to 617 in January.when the subsidy goes away

UNLESS Congress acts. As if...

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. It is not uncommon for family rates to be 2-3x higher than single

In addition, it isn't illegal for a company to say that they will only subsidize singles, but not family plans.

I worked for a small company who did that. They paid 60% of single plans, but the difference between the single plan and the family plan was paid 100% by the employee. Many of my coworkers didn't subscribe, choosing to get insurance through their spouse's employer.

[kiva]

3. If the other employees are paying $200 per month for individual

coverage, then triple that for family coverage (presumably 3+ people) is not surprising. Please note that I don't say reasonable, just not surprising. It may be that your employer pays a higher percent of your premium.