I can barely afford it. Is there anything I can do?
We work with quite a few teachers, police officers, fireman, etc and this is a very common question. One would think that with such a large group of people, rates would be cheaper, but that’s not the case especially if you’re insuring a family.
The employer is required by law to pay for at least 50% of an employees’ group health insurance premiums, but is not required to pay anything toward the remainder of the family. In many instances, the employer will pay 100% of the employees’ premium as an incentive to attract competent employees.
This is generally a great deal if you’re a single person, but kind of a bad deal if you have a spouse/kids to support. Why is this?
Most group health insurance plans are required to offer more comprehensive coverage in certain areas, but many of those areas are unnecessary for the average person. For example, most large employers offer maternity coverage, severe mental health coverage and also alcohol and drug abuse coverage. These are items that are generally not available under most individual and family Texas health insurance policies, but for most people, that’s just fine.
Since the private Texas based health policies aren’t required to offer those coverages, they are normally much less expensive. If your family planning is complete, have no need for severe mental health benefits (institutions, rehab, etc) and you have no alcohol or drug problems in your immediate family, why pay for it?
If your group health plan is very inexpensive or even free for you, why not drop your spouse and/or kids from the plan and place them with one of the many plans we offer. Selected Benefits, in almost all cases, can insure the remainder of the family for a fraction of what it would run on the group health insurance plan. We can normally save most families at least several hundred dollars per month.