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I am 26 years old and recently my employer changed to another insurance provider agency and the price went up ridiculously, at least for me. At this company the employer pay 50% of the insurance cost.

Before I was paying $115 a month. and now with the new insurance, my monthly deduction for medical ins is $310. And the plan is definitely not the best ( $30 copay dr, $40 specialist, deductible $2500). And since $310 is 50% of the total cost, I guest the actual cost of this plan is $620 a month, which I think is ridiculously high for such plan.

What do you guys think I should do? Is this a reasonable price for a health insurance for someone my age 26 and single?

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    Which country do you live in?
    – Ben Miller
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 3:20
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    Well, we can exclude USA. No American would call $310 "extremely high"!
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 6:47
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    Speaking as an American, not sure where you are: I'm currently paying $730 per month to cover 2 people with a $13,000 deductible and no "first dollar" coverage, i.e. they pay zero for office visits or anything else until I hit the deductible. My daughter, who is about your age, has a plan that costs about $200 per month for a $6,000 deductible with some first dollar coverage. So your plan sounds expensive to me, but not unbelievable.
    – Jay
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 16:44
  • I was on COBRA for a few months back in…2013. So 5 years ago, and I paid about that much back then. I've heard of plans over $1k, and it can get even higher if you have a spouse and dependents.
    – Kevin
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 16:57
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    How big is the company, 20 employees? 2,000? Did something in your employment change, raise new title?
    – quid
    Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 15:50

2 Answers 2

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No, that's about right. We have good data for 2016 where, for example, the average total cost for a single person in Delaware was $6,545. In Oregon, $5,974. Yours is $7,440. But costs have been going up over the past two years.

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    Could you site your sources for that data?
    – BobbyScon
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 16:58
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To answer the question of

What do you guys think I should do?

Have you contacted someone in HR to ask? (Making sure you ask politely and not in an accusatory manner.) Have you double-checked that you were signed up for the correct benefit plan and didn't somehow get signed up for a +Spouse or +Dependents plan?

You don't have a lot of options. If you're not happy with the benefits your employer is offering (and don't have other employer-offered options that meet your needs), you can either find a different employer that offers better benefits or look into declining their insurance and buying your own. Keep in mind that typically age doesn't impact medical benefits cost. You could be 26 or 66. Employer-offered insurance is (again, typically) flat-rate. Life insurance is a different story, of course. You need to look at the big picture. Vacation time, retirement options, stocks, salary, and any other benefits.

With regards to a price comparison, we don't have enough information to go from. The costs of benefits through a broker are effected by several factors including things like which industry your company serves, number of employees, claim history for the company as a whole (are they a risky company to insure for some reason), geographical location, etc.

Anecdotally: Your insurance is a lot more expensive than what's offered by my employer. An Individual plan with $500 deductible and $3,000 out of pocket total is ~$80/month to the employee. However, I have friends that work at other companies and they're paying closer to your numbers (and I have also paid that in the past).

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    " look into declining their insurance and buying your own. " - This can only be done during open season. Unless there is a qualifying life event such as marriage, birth of a child, change of job,,,,
    – mhoran_psprep
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 18:24
  • @mhoran_psprep - Good point, thank you. Some goes for changing plans in general unless they made a mistake and put you in the wrong one.
    – BobbyScon
    Commented Jun 22, 2018 at 18:53
  • Good luck finding individual insurance for less than $310/mo…
    – Kevin
    Commented Jun 23, 2018 at 18:03
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    Good answer, and even beyond the items you mention there may also be a lot of differences in what exactly is covered and how. Premium and deductible structure are important components of health insurance but aren't (by themselves) enough information to reliably compare coverage options. For example, the OP could have moved from an ACO to an open-access style plan.
    – Upper_Case
    Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 12:42

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