Reply #134: Ours is with a high-deductible plan ($5,000/yr indiv, $7,500/family).

[KatyaR]

The company contributes $750 a year to each employee's fund, but they wised up this year after record-breaking turnover and will only fund them one quarter at a time. So now we're doled out $187.50 each quarter-whee!!!

The bank that has our plan charges a $2 fee each month that you're under the "minimum balance"--funny thing, though--the minimum balance is ALWAYS $2 OVER your balance. (I've tracked my account, and it's true.)

Oh, and there's no drug benefit, so guess where your money goes? I've heard of full-time employees having to fill out paperwork at a pharmacy to get discounted drugs for their kids when they were sick. Disgusting.

And if you want to move to the plan with the drug benefit, you have to APPLY for the plan and they may or may not accept you. If they don't, they reserve the right to not take you back into your old plan. So when you start at this company, you get little to no information about the plan, and whatever choice you make, you're stuck with it.

Of course, the CEO is a god-fearing repuke, so he loves it. Very, VERY small employee premiums (I pay like $11 every two weeks), and very little in the way of coverage costs.

Thank whatever that I only take generic drugs anyway, but I'm what's called "glaucoma suspect" and have to have my eyes checked every six months as well as having a yearly eye exam. And since my company dropped its vision coverage a couple of years ago, if I need new glasses, I have to pay full price. The doctor's been trying to get me to get a new pair for a year, but I can't afford it. My last pair cost me over $400, and that was a basic pair when I had great insurance coverage.

If I were to have a catastrophic illness or an accident while on this job, I'd be screwed every way possible, because we aren't allowed to carry enough leave to cover anything like that. I'd lose everything.

Dirty, rotten, stinking bastards--I hate them all. I hope they rot in hell . . . . .