Health Insurance Articles
Determining The Value Of Medical Insurance Benefits In A Job Offer
2010-10-18
If you've been offered a job, you'll need to carefully assess all of the pay that you'll receive before accepting it, including both salary and benefits. Medical insurance is one of the most valuable common benefits offered by employers and a wide range of insurance policies exist, making it difficult to reliably assess the value of employer-provided medical insurance policies. Fortunately, job seekers can get a good idea of a medical insurance plan's full value by gathering a few health insurance quotes online.
To assess the value of medical benefits, it's first important to gather as much information as possible about the benefits and how they will function if you take the job. Ask the employer for a sample health insurance contract or the basic coverage limits of the policy. Know the coverage limits, but also find out about the policy itself. Read about exclusions and the health providers and procedures that the insurance company will cover. These can be as important as the coverage limits, as they'll change the value of your medical insurance policy. However, the most important information to get at this stage of the process is the coverage limits of the policy in order to determine its approximate price.
The next step is to look online for health insurance quotes that match the coverage limits of the employer's medical insurance policy. You can do this quickly and easily by finding an aggregate website that allows you to see several quotes from major insurance companies without re-entering information into various forms. These websites often allow you to select coverage levels to customize your quotes. They'll use information about your health and demographics to accurately determine what a health insurance policy should cost given your individual risk factors. You can use the health insurance quotes that are generated to find out what your employer's policy would cost if it was purchased privately.
Your employer will be paying less than this number, but that still doesn't change the value of the medical insurance, since you'd need to pay that amount in order to get the same coverage. It's important to know this value in order to fully assess the benefits package offered by any employer. If you're ever promoted or if your benefits change for any other reason, you'll know how to easily compare your old benefits package with your new benefits. If you ever need to purchase private medical insurance or get a new job, you'll be able to switch providers without worrying about whether you're taking a financial hit (or without knowing the difference between any two plans).
