"Ralph Mowery" wrote in message
m...

"Kurt Ullman" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Steve Stone wrote:

But what is a 'typical' (or average) USA cost?
Is that total premium or just what you pay? The OP was discussing
total premium, you and employer parts.

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What some do not know is that the very large companies do not really pay
any insurance. They pay the insurance companies to handle the billing,
but they are the ones actually paying the claims.
That means you are really giving the company some money back. It would
be just as easy for the company to pay for all the medical insurance and
cut the wages.
It just does not make the dumb employee feel like the company is treating
him badly.

a lot of smaller companies self-insure too. it's much more cost efficient to
do so. of course, those companies that they pay management fees to have a
strong incentive to hold down costs by limiting certain things (new fangled
drugs not on a approved list, new types of operations, etc).