flu – clearly you haven’t worked for scrooge like employers.

I worked for an employer that REQUIRED you to go on your spouses insurance if they had an insurance option. You were not allowed to put yourself, your family, etc. on the company plan – even if the spouses insurance was crappy or more expensive. This was challenged by more than one employee – but the company held firm on this policy. (It was a small company – so everyone knew who was married, who’s spouses worked, etc.)

My husband’s employer covers 50% of a crappy plan for the employee. It covers NOTHING for spouse and kids. The 50% premium is more expensive than adding him to my family coverage. Unfortunately, this means I can’t quit my job, ever, since I have the family insurance. This is not the first firm he’s worked for that had limited or no contribution for spouse/family.

If you have any kind of pre-existing condition at all – it has historically been hard to get insurance. My best friend has several pre-existing conditions. When she was laid off from the dot-com in the dot-bust years she found contract/consulting work… No benefits, but it covered her mortgage. But she needed insurance so she also took a job with a local grocery store for $7/hour – for the benefits. This meant she had fewer hours for consulting (which paid better)… a total catch22. A few years later, after getting a good job then being recruited to a start up with the promise they’d give her bennies before her cobra ran out… they changed their minds… Fortunately WA state had passed a law that said if you had no lapse of coverage, you couldn’t be denied…

I guess I’ve seen too many situations that don’t fit your ideal world scenario, Flu.