Did the premiums of dental and vision plans increased at the same rate as h.i. plans?

[her209]

If it has, what has been attributed to the rise in premiums to be in lockstep with health insurance plans.

If not, why hasn't it been in lockstep with health insurance plans.

Just curious.

 

[spidey07]

Highly unlikely. The reason is the cost of dental or vision care hasn't really gone up because it's not as fast paced or critical as health. Sure lasik is pretty new and pretty expensive but most vision plans don't include it or only offer a marginal discount.

Think about what the most outrageous claim could be for dental or vision insurance. Still probably under 10,000.

 

[Kaieye]

Good question! I would like to know.

 

[QuantumPion]

The cost of my vision and dental premiums will increase by ~400% next year when the government defacto ban on HSA's take effect.

 

[woolfe9999]

Dental costs seem to have gone up quite a bit over the past 10 years, but I have no idea by how much. I get a lot of dental work - a crown cost me about $650 10 years ago and it's about $1100 now.

I doubt dental *insurance* has gone up that much in premium cost, however, because dental insurance has low yearly caps and those caps have not gone up much over time. Dental insurance is for routine care only, preventive stuff like cleanings, and fillings. It doesn't cover much of major work.

- wolf

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

The cost of my vision and dental premiums will increase by ~400% next year when the government defacto ban on HSA's take effect.

Link?

 

[QuantumPion]

Link?

I don't have the link any more, it's from a PDF of a timeline for the health care bill provisions to take effect. These are the items that affect HSA/FSA's:

2011:
- Penalties for non-qualified HSA and Archer MSA distributions double (to 20%)
- No longer allowed to use FSA, HSA, HRA, Archer MSA distributions for over-the-counter medicines
2013:
- Impose $2,500 annual cap on FSA contributions (indexed to CPI)
2014:
- Individuals without gov’t-approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income
- Employers who fail to offer “affordable” coverage would pay a $3,000 penalty for every employee that receives a subsidy through the Exchange
- All non-grandfathered and Exchange health plans required to meet federally-mandated levels of coverage
- Limits out-of-pocket cost-sharing (tied to limits in HSAs, currently $5,950/$11,900 indexed to COLA)
- Insurance plans must include government-defined “essential benefits ” and coverage levels

Those last 5 items in 2014 effectively ban HSA's and FSA's because they have high deductibles, which the government deems is "unfair" and offer insufficient coverage. How dare we plebes decide how to spend our own money.

 

[werepossum]

I don't have the link any more, it's from a PDF of a timeline for the health care bill provisions to take effect. These are the items that affect HSA/FSA's:

2011:
- Penalties for non-qualified HSA and Archer MSA distributions double (to 20%)
- No longer allowed to use FSA, HSA, HRA, Archer MSA distributions for over-the-counter medicines
2013:
- Impose $2,500 annual cap on FSA contributions (indexed to CPI)
2014:
- Individuals without gov’t-approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income
- Employers who fail to offer “affordable” coverage would pay a $3,000 penalty for every employee that receives a subsidy through the Exchange
- All non-grandfathered and Exchange health plans required to meet federally-mandated levels of coverage
- Limits out-of-pocket cost-sharing (tied to limits in HSAs, currently $5,950/$11,900 indexed to COLA)
- Insurance plans must include government-defined “essential benefits ” and coverage levels

Those last 5 items in 2014 effectively ban HSA's and FSA's because they have high deductibles, which the government deems is "unfair" and offer insufficient coverage. How dare we plebes decide how to spend our own money.

My company uses HSAs and I love them. The irony is that this health care reform bill will probably cause us to stop offering health care entirely, without even being able to turn over all that money to the employees (because of the penalties we'll have to pay.) Our alternative would be to go out of business, unless the economy really picks up. We won't really know until BC/BS has analyzed the HCR bill (and its many little fixes) and told us where we stand, which probably won't be until next year.

 

[Wreckem]

Why haven't they risen in lock step?

Because 99% of dental and vision insurance is shit and only covers routine stuff, or covers other stuff but only pays a low precentage and you had to cover the rest.

Even with dental insurance I had to pay $5.5k of the $8k. Vision didnt even cover the price of my glasses let alone my contacts.

Vision usually only covers 1 appointment per year and a precentage or up to a certain amount for contacts and glasses. Vision doesnt typically cover any type of eye surgery. Most peoples medical insruance covers stuff like that(sans vision correction surgery).