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Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Health Insurance Benefits?
When people look at job descriptions or study their own positions, they often look only as far as the salary. If you're one of the millions of Americans who are dollar-sign focused, we're here to tell you that you may be missing a huge portion of your compensation package!
Employers offer pay in the form of dollars and cents that you receive at the end of each pay period. However, many people forget to take full advantage of the health insurance benefits that employers offer. It is critically important that when thinking about how much you get paid in your current job or how much you may get paid in a potential job, that you look at the entire compensation package. This means looking just as hard at the health insurance your employer offers as you would the X dollars per year they offer.
When you start thinking about your health insurance as part of your total compensation package, you begin to see that you may not be taking full advantage of it. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Checkups- Whether it's medical, dental, or optical coverage, make sure you schedule and go to every checkup, exam, and cleaning that the plan allows.
- Employer Subsidies- Did you know that your employer can pick up some of the cost of your premium? It's true! You can find out how much by studying your insurance plan documents.
- Understand Your Plan Year- Insurance plans generally do not operate on a calendar year and instead have a separate renewal date. Make sure you understand what these dates are and time your appointments appropriately.
- Plan Ahead With Open Enrollment- Because the plan year is set in stone, and insurance is a contract, you can only make certain changes within the open enrollment period, which generally starts 30 days before the plan year ends and lasts until the new plan year begins.
- Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts- Your employer may offer a health savings account or a flexible spending account. You can direct the amount of money you'd like to set aside in these accounts at the beginning of the year, then have that money diverted from your paycheck, tax-free!
Following these simple steps and thinking about the health insurance that your employer provides as part of your total compensation package will go a long way to ensuring that you are taking full advantage of your employer benefits.
For more information on your healthcare insurance benefits, access the full article here.
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