"Smitty Two" wrote

Based on personal observation, government employees of almost any type
have excellent health insurance policies paid by the employer, with
funds graciously provided by my taxes. Those policies cover vision and
dental as well as regular insurance, and include the employee's family.

And I thank you for that, being one of them. My costs are 478$ a year just
now. There is talk about doubling or tripling it but haven't seen it happen
yet. I do not have vision or dental care though. Those policy additions
are cheaper to get 'out in town' than via the government.

It was medical free before I honorably retired but the family didnt have
dental unless I paid extra and the dental plan for family was so poor, it
was actually better in the end to put the money on the side and just pay as
needed. The dental for example has a lifetime cap of 1,500$.

The 'vision plan' BTW is 'space available' and there has never been space
for dependants in my 26 years except in Sasebo Japan and for the school age
kids only. (it was impossible to find a local optometrist who spoke enough
english to give a child an eye test so once a year they'ed bring one in).

Then again, this was listed as why my pay was 'comparable' to civilian work
of the same sort for 26 years of my life in the Navy. In fact, they would
calculate the 'medical benefits' as 3,000$ a month offset at the end. They
also said the access to 3 stair steppers, 4 sets of weights, and 1 broken
stationary bicycle (shared by 300 crew and 700 marines) was equal to spa
level accomodations at another 500$ a month and equated my job to that of a
first year data entry job. When I retired, I got hired the next day by a
good company. I get dental for the whole family for 12$ a month with a
2,000$ per person annual cap, and the medical is not bad at 38.50 per month
per person. The problem with the medical is they will not cover any
'pre-existing conditions' for the first 3 years of employment and require a
physical I will not pass being 50% disabled (partly war injury related in
the gulf).

BTW, do you normally get shot at in your line of work? I've had that happen
several times. 2 speed boat attacks, a diver who tried to plant a bomb on
the sides, stuff like that.

I'm not so worried that your tax dollars pay for my health plan as it was
part of the reason why my pay was so low. What I do think is an
embrassament is that the pay is so low, a young E5 (this is middle rank,
takes years to get normally) will qualify for food stamps if he has a wife
and 2 kids and she can't get a good job because he's moving every 2-3
years. It used to be an E6 with only 2 dependants qualified and I was one
of them that served during that era.