Do You Ever Feel Guilty At The Financial Cost Of Ptsd?

[FauxLiz]

I am lucky to have private pay health insurance that doesn't cost me a fortune yet as my employer partially self funds their health insurance program (meaning they pay 50% of the actual cost of employee and any dependent's health care or prescription cost out of the organizational coffers. Now for most employees this isn't even a blip on their radar as they only see the monthly cost of their premiums which pay for the other 50% of the cost even though all billing is run through a single insurance company. However, due to my position I am responsible for negotiating and determining health care benefits for all organization employees each year, not that they change much due to collective bargaining agreements, and as a result I see the top three employees (shown by the last four numbers of their Social Security Number) in terms of amount spent. Each year I am on that list in part due to the number of appointments with my T and Pdoc, but also due to other significant health issues that are the result of my PTSD related traumas and the medications I am on to stabilize those issues.

I am meeting with our benefits broker next week and I don't expect any surprises but I do know that they have warned us the renewal is not pretty. So I was wondering if anyone else here with employer paid insurance ever has felt guilty about the cost of what their care is costing the employer and wondered if there wasn't something else they could do about it?

 

[Beemo3780]

I wouldn't feel bad about it. They can always setup a plan that works for them if they are paying too much. I work for a health insurance company, and I don't really see too many plans like yours. Usually the company pays part of the premium for each employee, or just offers the insurance and pays zero of the premium.

My plan is terrible. I have a really high deductible that doesn't include mental health coverage, so I pay out of pocket for my therapist. I work for the insurance company, and my medical bills aren't covered at all until I meet my dectible. Last year I had to have emergency surgery and had to take out a personal loan just to pay the $6500 bill.

Just consider yourself very lucky.

 

[Friday]

I work for the insurance company,

I worked for -an insurance company owned- hospital... And had no health insurance. :rolleyes: It was cheaper for them to have us on the books at 31 hours a week (not legally required to provide benefits until 32 hours per week). And pay the overtime, as we were actually working 40-50 hours per week, than to give us benefits. Even super crappy benefits cost about $1600 a month individually at the time, so there I was, working in a hospital for years with no health insurance. f*cking ridiculous.

@FauxLiz... When I worked for individuals or small companies that either paid our health insurance or straight up paid our medical bills? Yeah. I tended to feel pretty guilty about ever using any of my benefits. To the point I had one owner sit me down and read me the riot act for essentially 'besmirching his honor'. That he chose to take care of his employees, and that I was refusing to care for myself, was making him negligent in his duty to me. So essentially start using my benefits, or take a hike. Which was just so backwards from the miserly, griping at bare minimums, penny pinching, norm ...where people are disposable burdens, instead of valued assets... that it really threw my head for a loop. And kept it there. So, no. I no longer feel guilty about being treated with the bare minimum basic human dignity. Cough. In this area, anyway ;)

 

[Bodu_Birch]

Thank goodness for the NHS service I receive here in Scotland

 

[Freedomfighter]

I am lucky to have private pay health insurance that doesn't cost me a fortune yet as my employer parti...

Nah, that would not be my problem, what I do mourn is the time lost to PTSD.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

So I was wondering if anyone else here with employer paid insurance ever has felt guilty about the cost of what their care is costing the employer

Not one bit! It has cost me well over $1800 just in therapy in 8 years. Out of my pocket. This doesnt include the cost of healthcare out of my pay check.

My healthcare also changed due to ObamaCare to a Health Saving plan that the company pays part of. The company calls it a Comsumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP). They no longer have a PPO. Thus my Healthcare cost increased, and what I pay increased.

I dont feel guilty one bit. Ive paid my part and they have way more money then I do!

 

[FauxLiz]

Thank you all for your responses. Maybe it is a function not only of the position I hold as CAO but the fact that my job is donation funded that makes me feel guilty about the costs.

 

[joeylittle]

the fact that my job is donation funded that makes me feel guilty about the costs.

I understand that. I worked for a non-profit for a long time, and ben though I rarely used my insurance then, I felt really bad about it when I did. But it had to do with my lack of self-worth, not my 'right' to access that support. At the end of the day, insurance is a for-profit enterprise, same as the doctors, the hospitals, the drug companies, etc. There are non-profit health care agencies, but you aren't doing anything that effects them.

You don't have to take responsibility for how capitalist society health care works. It's much bigger than you, and even much bigger than the level you are perceiving it at - though I understand how being part of the information chain in your company that exposes you to that info creates that feeling.