Frankly, I think the PPO plan isn't much better. Does anybody know how much it costs every time to go see a specialist? $55. If you've got cancer or some other condition that requires many visits to a specialist, you have to pay $55 each time. It eats up a huge chunk of your paycheck.
Archived It's official: no HMOs or PPOs next year
- Thread starter redeye58
- Start date
- Status
Frankly, I think the PPO plan isn't much better. Does anybody know how much it costs every time to go see a specialist? $55. If you've got cancer or some other condition that requires many visits to a specialist, you have to pay $55 each time. It eats up a huge chunk of your paycheck.
It would eat up even more of your paycheck with NO insurance. My regular doctor charges $120 for a routine office visit. I pay $15 unless it's coded as preventative care, in which case it's free. I also have a supplemental policy that picks up any copayments and deductibles that my primary does not pay. So in effect, I don't pay ANYTHING for any office visits, or other visits for that matter. I had $42,000 in surgery charges for one surgery in 2009, and $12,500 in another surgery earlier in the year. Between both policies, I paid a grand total of $15 for all of it. So yes, premiums can be costly, but it is thousands of times worse if you elect to have NO insurance because "you can't afford it." Pretty soon you won't have an option to not carry health insurance.
Aren't you an ETL? ETLs get different benefits than team members. And this supplemental policy, I would like to know more about this.
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2011
- Messages
- 825
Wrong. ETLs do *not* get different benefits. They get *more* benefits.
ETLs have the exact same health benefits.
They get *more* benefits in that they get compensated for every holiday they work with an extra day off. They also get extra time off allowances. But as far as health care, they get the same plans any TM does who is working enough hours to qualify.
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2011
- Messages
- 825
You think the PPO plan is not much better precisely because you have never had cancer/HIV/etc. Those conditions have serious highly expensive treatments that can easily run $10,000 a pop. My friends wife had breast cancer. Do you know how much they were billed in one year? Over $500,000 for chemotherapy and other treatments. They had a PPO, and paid out of pocket about $3000.
On the Target HRA/HSA you are looking at owing around $20,000 for the same treatment. That means you would have to go to your $55 specialist 400 times in order to make up the difference. And for most people with serious conditions, it lasts for years. That means every year you are accumulating thousands of dollars in medical bills with a piss poor health plan.
AM I and ETL? No. Was I? Yes.
Many supplemental policies exist. Mine happended to be TriCare, which I earned the right to use after 20 years in the military, but even that is not free. I have to pay premiums and acts as a "Secondary" or supplementary policy to pick up the co-insurance and deductibles when I have primary insurance for any covered service, which basically are almost anything except Dental. In my mind the amount of the premium was more than paid off for the rest of my life after savings it provided me just in 2009.
I had a serious issue last year that required multiple doctor's visits. They were shocked when they found out how much my co-pay was. Most people that came through their office, the highest co-pay they had was $35. They had never seen a $55 co-pay before, and then they offered me an application for financial assistance due to the amount that I was having to pay out of pocket every week. This is where my reasoning came from, after they talked about what *most* other people have to pay for health insurance versus what *I* was paying with Target.
I've had health insurance through different providers at different times in my life, and Target is by far, the worst I've had.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 19,996
Oh, I don't know, maybe decency and respect for the people who do the hard work that brings in all the money?
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2011
- Messages
- 34,055
After you logged into ehr at the store. You can access everything except max. 2nd option is targetpayandbenefits.com, too.
mrknownothing
purveyor of things
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 10,148
Sad but true.
GangulonCyst
You want more hours?
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2011
- Messages
- 92
Sure would be lovely if we could log into MAX from home to see our schedules instead of having to drive to work since nobody is allowed to give schedules out over the phone..... Might actually help team members be on time for work or prevent a few NCNS's from happening..... God forbid we allow our team members to have visibility into their schedules.....
- Joined
- May 29, 2012
- Messages
- 7,385
We have the same TM on flow call every single Sunday night and ask to speak with the LOD/GSTL to get her schedule for the next morning. It is seriously annoying, and I wish it would stop. But apparently no one else has caught on to this annoyance but me. And the one week I basically told her to come in because no one had time to take her call? She didn't come in...so she can't need to do this that badly every. Single. Week.
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2011
- Messages
- 34,055
i had one tm who did it too. the only way i got them to stop was, by walking up to the schedule & giving them a pen, a schedule blank sheet, & showing them how to write it down. no issues since then. i did follow up one week later, i asked them if they had the schedule sheet. they took it out & showed it to me. i told them, well done. now, lets review missed punches & how to correct them...
Target Annie
HRTM
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2011
- Messages
- 1,036
I hope we can never log into MAX from home. Too much opportunity for error, those schedules are edited and changed constantly. Personally I would not trust viewing it at home. I print my schedule from work each week, and then make any changes on that copy.
For example, I am quite often making phone calls in the morning trying to cover shifts for that night on the salesfloor and cashiers. As team members reply and let me know whether they can stay an hour later, or come in an hour earlier, I am making those edits as I go. The way MAX is slow, I wouldn't want someone to look online and check it between edits - and get confused. Too many chances for errors.
And also, no one at our store better be calling in to get their schedule over the phone - not our responsibility to relay what you work. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you are told during orientation of the need to get your own schedule.
For example, I am quite often making phone calls in the morning trying to cover shifts for that night on the salesfloor and cashiers. As team members reply and let me know whether they can stay an hour later, or come in an hour earlier, I am making those edits as I go. The way MAX is slow, I wouldn't want someone to look online and check it between edits - and get confused. Too many chances for errors.
And also, no one at our store better be calling in to get their schedule over the phone - not our responsibility to relay what you work. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you are told during orientation of the need to get your own schedule.
M
mxrbook
Guest
You're wrong about the cost to you with the HRA. The total out of pocket per year for a family is $6300. I know, it's not in everyone's ability to come up with $6300 in addition to the monthly premium, but it is not a bad deal. On the HRA, there is no $55 office visit. You get the first $850 (for family) in medical expenses paid; then you pay the next $1100. After that you split 80/20 with insurance up to $6300 total outlay. It's insurance. It's not free health care. No one offers that.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 19,996
On my wife's insurance (granted she's in a union) it's a $10 dollar co-pay for every visit, up to the $200 for the year then you don't pay no matter how many times you go even for some of the specialists I have to visit who charge astronomical amounts just for visits.
Last edited:
but some services are better covered under our hmos/ppos.
pregnancy for example. it costs nothing. your visits are free. there is no payment whatsoever for any part of your prenatal/postnatal care. under the hra, you shell out around 1300.
cancer is another. you do have specialist office visits ($50), but the amount you save on any type of surgical/therapy is tremendous. you would be bankrupt and hit the max using an hra.
diabetic medicines/services that require dietary care. you get hit with copays, but with hra the medicine is outrageous. and it's not something you can skip or wait until you can afford it.
i've had two long term tm saying they're quitting after the insurance takes effect because they were essentially working only to provide decent insurance for their families due to lack of insurance from their spouses. one is on my team and has been here forever. it makes me sad because she will be very difficult to replace from a working standpoint, and impossible to replace as a wonderful individual i enjoy working with.
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2011
- Messages
- 34,055
Keep trying on state, red!
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2011
- Messages
- 825
Remember also that they the "total out of pocket" is not *literally* "total out of pocket". If you call the insurance company and actually ask for the *policy* (this is not available online) you will find that it is loaded with tons of exceptions to the "total out of pocket". (the policy is dozens of pages long, and is the actual legal contract for the insurance.... what they show you online and in the little brochures is basically just marketing) For example, were you in an accident so severe a helicopter had to take you to the hospital? Well, that $5000 flight happens to be excluded from the policy. Did your doctor prescribe more pain killer than most other doctors? Gee, doesn't count towards the out of pocket limit. Did you refuse treatment for X and as a result something bad happened? Gee, because you refused that doesn't count towards the limit. Bull sh** like that is where they screw you over. The policy is full of little exceptions like that to all kinds of random things.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 19,996
One of the nice things about the Affordable Care Law is there a subsection that say insurance companies have to state all of the rules in simple, easy to understand. English.
If there are exceptions they have to be stated up front and can't be hidden.
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2012
- Messages
- 176
Affordable Care, my ass. The HSA sucks, the HRA sucks. I have no negotiating power. So Targets approach to healthcare is ****ed up. Why does everyone who sits at a desk fiddling w themselves get healthcare, but we don't?
- Status