Benefits

We recently had what I like to call the worst day of the year at work. The day HR explains how our benefits will change for the upcoming year. They try to highlight the "positive" changes, but let's be honest. There are none.

Perhaps the reason I'm particularly sensitive to the changes this time around is I've had the best insurance ever this year. The literal best. Insurance. Ever. In looking at options a year ago, I looked at this plan over and over again and couldn't for the life of me figure out how it could cover everything 100% and only cost me an additional $5 per month in the small percentage of the premiums I pay. (I use the term 'pay' loosely here, because if it's automatically taken out of my paycheck, it doesn't seem as much like money out of my pocket). The key for me when it comes to insurance is not having to pay anything when I have appointments, tests, and surgeries, and for that I'd gladly pay an additional $5 per month. As a result of this deluxe insurance, I literally paid NOTHING for the thousand billion tests I had done this year. Not a dime. And the surgery bill that just came? Completely covered. It was awesome.

Apparently my health care provider must have caught on to the fact that I'm getting a screaming deal, because while all the other plans are increasing in single digit percentages, mine is increasing a whopping 26% for 2011. So now I either pay 26% more on my part of the premiums, or I switch to a plan that covers less of my actual medical expenses. True that I likely won't have as many tests in 2011 (heck, if the surgery turns up nothing, we might be at a dead end), but I so enjoy getting no medical bills. It feels like victory, no matter how much is actually coming out of my paycheck in premiums. Sweet, sweet victory.

.