Healthcare Question: How much does it cost to add a dependent?

bmo88 · January 2016

I was just running numbers for when we consider having children in the future. For employees, our organization offers decent insurance and it only costs about $126 a month for medical, dental and vision for a plan with a $500 deductible and $4,500 OOP. Our organization covers 75% of the cost for employee plans. However, it only covers 25% of the cost of spouses and dependents.

In contrast, to add a dependent their are two options: employee plus child or family plan. The nice thing about the family plan is you can have as many children as you want and it's same. But if you just have one child, you pay the same.

Employee: $126 per month

Employee plus child: $482.66 per month

Family Plan: $838.55 per month

DH and I work at the same organization, so we would just add a child to one of our plans and the other would stay on a separate plan. Clearly it would be cheaper to do that, but our healthcare costs would still increase by $355 a month, or $4266 a year! So our total monthly health insurance costs for a family of three would be $609.54 a month.

Ugh, that's a fair amount to think about considering child care would be an extra $1,100 a month. All the more reason we are getting our finances in order and saving up before TTC.

How about all of you?

AprilZ81 · January 2016

When we ran the numbers it was best for a baby to go on DH's plan and while it went up it wasn't quite as dramatic as yours. Maybe another $90-100 a month?

DH's company pays for a lot of the employee plan and gives a a nice amount to the HSA/HRA. Coverage itself is pretty decent although it is a high deductible plan.

hoffse · January 2016

Right now we each pay around $110/month for our insurance. We don't have an employee+1 option, so to add a kid, we will have to go on a family plan. Our insurance is going to go up to nearly $600/month for the family plan. Our deductibles and OOP max amounts will also double. It's crazy.

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CuriousKiddosMama · January 2016

I want to say that ours went up $100-200 a month (it's been a while). The good thing for us is that dh's plan doesn't offer the one child plan so we went straight to family so it won't go up again with this new baby.

Xstatic3333 · January 2016

We're somewhat lucky. H works for a neighboring state, and since we don't live in that state we only have two insurance plan choices. One is crazy expensive, so we take the second. As two people, we are already on the family plan, and it will not increase for any number of children we have. It's a bummer as a childless couple, but it still isn't too bad (maybe around $400 a month? not really sure).

My job offers healthcare to me only, and it is the same price as H's family plan.

vlagrl29 · January 2016

personally if I were you I would buy a separate planfor baby - it will be much more affordable than adding on to your policy at work and just as good policy.

We have a family plan with the market place right now and when we have our 2nd it won't cost more because its a family plan

LillibetteV · January 2016

My husband's insurance only offers single or family so we are already on the family - adding kids won't change anything. My employer offers single, double, and family but it was more expensive to do my double than his family when you calculate in that my employer provides a monthly opt-out bonus if you don't take their insurance. I hate being on an HMO instead of my old PPO at my last job but nothing we can do about that...

bmo88 · January 2016

vlagrl29: When the time comes, we will probably look into other health insurance options outside of our work plans.

kmurphy2131 · January 2016

Wow, after reading these I feel SO grateful for my husbands insurance, and the deal I get. The insurance at my work is not good, but covered at 100% by the employer for me, and we could get coverage for my husband but we would pay 100% out of pocket. Alternatively, I could opt of insurance (which I did) and I get paid an extra $400/month. We pay ~$100/month for my husbands family plan. So when we have kids there will be no changes. His costs will go up soon, and there is talk of adding a deductible (currently no in network deductible) but we are still so so so lucky with the deal(s) we get.

bmo88 · January 2016

@hoffse: Our monthly premium will be about the same at just above $600. Luckily our OOP max will stay the same at $4,500. It's crazy how much healthcare expenses cost in the US.

BlueBirdMB · January 2016

Our premium is $110 per month and $90 of that is just for me, since it's my husband's insurance and they pay almost everything for their employees. I feel so grateful for our insurance situation, even though we have the lowest premium option ,which means we have a high deductible. When we have a kid, we will probably opt for the lower deductible, higher premium option. Both options are PPO, which I far prefer to an HMO.

I hadn't considered what the insurance would look like when we had a kid, so this post was really helpful. I looked it up and it would be another $90 for our current plan. There are no family plans, you just add another dependent, which (from what I'm understanding online) looks like it's the same price as a spouse.

blondie42107 · January 2016

Currently we are on a family plan through H's employer. It's always been cheaper for us to be on one family plan verses each of us having coverage along, with the added bonus that our expenses go towards one deductible and OOP max.

brij2006 · January 2016

DD is on my plan through my employer. I pay $200/month to my employer, after taxes, because they're a small company and I continue to fight with them about taking it out pre-tax.

If we wanted to put her on H's plan, it's $190/month (pretax) but his deductible is $3k and max OOP $7k. Mine is $1k and $3k, so we'll keep her on mine for now.

We also looked into a separate plan for her. It was about the same cost as what I pay for her being on my plan.

julieanne912 · January 2016

My work has the option to do employee plus child, but not spouse. Or I can do a family plan. For the plan I'm on right now, my premium would go up around $50/month to add a kid. Deductibles and OOP max would double though.

I'm not sure what it would be on H's plan... I'm sure the deductible would go up significantly though.

He recently interviewed at a company that pays 100% of premiums for employee and entire family, I thought that was a pretty nice perk. He didn't get that job though.

short+sassy · January 2016

Traditional Plan - monthly, JUST employee portion:

EE Only $303

EE+Spouse $592

EE+Child(ren) $617

Family $908

HSA - monthly, just employee portion, no HSA employer contribution:

EE Only $0 ($3K deductible, nothing paid until hit)

EE+Spouse $33 ($6700 deductible, nothing paid until hit, same for below plans)

EE+Child(ren) $38

EE+Family $69

bmo88 · January 2016

short+sassy said:

Traditional Plan - monthly, JUST employee portion:
EE Only        $303
EE+Spouse   $592
EE+Child(ren) $617
Family $908

HSA - monthly, just employee portion, no HSA employer contribution:
EE Only    $0    ($3K deductible, nothing paid until hit)
EE+Spouse $33 ($6700 deductible, nothing paid until hit, same for below plans)
EE+Child(ren) $38
EE+Family $69

Wow, those are some high premiums! Our HSA premiums are actually the same as our PPO plan premiums and then you have to add money to the account. The OOP max is $1,000 less though than the PPO.

short+sassy · January 2016

bmo88 said:

short+sassy said:

Traditional Plan - monthly, JUST employee portion:
EE Only        $303
EE+Spouse   $592
EE+Child(ren) $617
Family $908

HSA - monthly, just employee portion, no HSA employer contribution:
EE Only    $0    ($3K deductible, nothing paid until hit)
EE+Spouse $33 ($6700 deductible, nothing paid until hit, same for below plans)
EE+Child(ren) $38
EE+Family $69

Wow, those are some high premiums! Our HSA premiums are actually the same as our PPO plan premiums and then you have to add money to the account. The OOP max is $1,000 less though than the PPO.

Yeeeaaahhh...it's pretty crazy. Overall, they're a really good company to work for, but their insurance options are atrocious. I have my H and I on the HSA plan but really, unless something super major happens, we never use the insurance and just have to pay out of pocket for everything...though I at least get the insurance "negotiated rate" when I see a doctor. And I get my one wellness visit per year for free.

bmo88 · January 2016

@short+sassy: I have thought about switching us both to an HSA. I never go to the doctors unless it is for a wellness exam (which our HSA will cover as well). DH had knee surgery last year and we maxed out our OOP, so it probably would have been better to be on the HSA since it has a lower OOP max.

I am just trying to figure out if it will be better to be on an HSA or PPO plan for when I do get pregnant. I will have to do more research.

vlagrl29 · January 2016

bmo88 said:

@short+sassy: I have thought about switching us both to an HSA. I never go to the doctors unless it is for a wellness exam (which our HSA will cover as well). DH had knee surgery last year and we maxed out our OOP, so it probably would have been better to be on the HSA since it has a lower OOP max.

I am just trying to figure out if it will be better to be on an HSA or PPO plan for when I do get pregnant. I will have to do more research.

I'm guessing PPO would be better for pregnancy because that's what we are on. HSAs usually have higher deductibles.

bmo88 · January 2016

@vlagrl29: That's where I am a little confused...

According to the online estimator, I should expect to pay my $500 deductible and a total of $2,400 OOP (including deductible) if it is a normal vaginal birth with no complications. OOP Max is $4,500.

For the HSA, it is a $2,500 deductible and then it says it covers 100% of other expenses. But it says there is an OOP max of $3,500. So I don't entirely understand how that works.

So provided everything is normal and fine, it seems like PPO makes more sense. But if things get complicated, it seems like the HSA is the better option.

vlagrl29 · January 2016

bmo88 said:

@vlagrl29: That's where I am a little confused...

According to the online estimator, I should expect to pay my $500 deductible and a total of $2,400 OOP (including deductible) if it is a normal vaginal birth with no complications. OOP Max is $4,500.

For the HSA, it is a $2,500 deductible and then it says it covers 100% of other expenses. But it says there is an OOP max of $3,500. So I don't entirely understand how that works.

So provided everything is normal and fine, it seems like PPO makes more sense. But if things get complicated, it seems like the HSA is the better option.

That is confusing. We buy our own and so in our experience HSAs are way higher deductibles than PPOs which is why they let you write off those medical expenses thru your HSA on your taxes. Currently on our PPO our max OOP for family is $1000 and everything over is 100% covered by insurance. I seriously can't believe that's all we will pay in medical bills next pregnancy. DH was like "lets have 5 kids" - I'm like nope!

Healthcare Question: How much does it cost to add a dependent?

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