# What Is The IBEW Health Insurance Premeium



## knowshorts (Jan 9, 2009)

It costs the members of the SoCal locals anywhere from $5.00 to $9.00 per hour out of their check.


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

Lone Crapshooter said:


> What does your union health insurance cost per week. I hear the electricians talk that here it cost about $250.00 a week and it goes up with with overtime because it is figured on so much an hour.
> They also say that at one time that the overtime premeum would go in a account that would pay your insurance when you were off work and now they have stoped that. They also say that when you are off work that the coverage only lasts about a week unless you pay the premeium out of your pocket.I realise that the insurance is paid in a benifit package above the wages but $250.00 a week sounds a bit excessive.
> From what I understand it is a real touchey subject with the rank and file.
> LC


What "you hear" and what " they say " is nonsense! I have been an IBEW member for 56 years and I have never had one penny deducted from my check or paid at anytime for health insurance even after retirement. Before you go posting unfounded rumors you should try looking at some facts. BillW


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## BDB (Jul 9, 2008)

wwilson174 said:


> What "you hear" and what " they say " is nonsense! I have been an IBEW member for 56 years and I have never had one penny deducted from my check or paid at anytime for health insurance even after retirement. Before you go posting unfounded rumors you should try looking at some facts. BillW


You may not have ever had to pay out of your pocket, but if you are out of work for a period of time then your hour bank will hit zero and you will have to pay out of pocket to have the insurance continue until you go back to work.


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

BDB said:


> You may not have ever had to pay out of your pocket, but if you are out of work for a period of time then your hour bank will hit zero and you will have to pay out of pocket to have the insurance continue until you go back to work.


WRONG! how do you presume to know the details of my coverage? I have been retired for15 years and still have paid nothing.


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## BDB (Jul 9, 2008)

wwilson174 said:


> WRONG! how do you presume to know the details of my coverage? I have been retired for15 years and still have paid nothing.


My mistake, I am talking about NON-retired, and can only tell the poster how it is in my local. 

Why do you answer with an attitude?


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

BDB said:


> My mistake, I am talking about NON-retired, and can only tell the poster how it is in my local.
> 
> Why do you answer with an attitude?


I have not always been retired, I worked for 46 years in the IBEW, my "attitude" comes from reading posts that disseminate inaccurate facts.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

wwilson174 said:


> What "you hear" and what " they say " is nonsense! I have been an IBEW member for 56 years and I have never had one penny deducted from my check or paid at anytime for health insurance even after retirement. Before you go posting unfounded rumors you should try looking at some facts. BillW


 


Yes out of the goodness of the IBEW, Insurance just falls out of the sky and lands in the laps of those that work in the electrical field. DAMN AREN"T WE LUCKY.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

bdb said:


> my mistake, i am talking about non-retired, and can only tell the poster how it is in my local.
> 
> Why do you answer with an attitude?


 
cause he is ignorant.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

wwilson174 said:


> I have not always been retired, I worked for 46 years in the IBEW, my "attitude" comes from reading posts that disseminate inaccurate facts.


 
You head up your ass FOOL, no one made any statements, SOMEONE ask a question and in your typical ignorant DO NOT KNOW CRAP way you answered.


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

I can spell "warranties" correctly, and I know how to use a possessive Apostrophe! that's more than I can say for you!


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## drsparky (Nov 13, 2008)

I respect warranties and leave the tags on my pillows.:blink:


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

I warrant saying you didn't!


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

wwilson174, BDB said the following:


BDB said:


> You may not have ever had to pay out of your pocket, but if you are out of work for a period of time then your hour bank will hit zero and you will have to pay out of pocket to have the insurance continue until you go back to work.


And you said that he was "WRONG".

He is correct as far as my local and all of them that I know about. If you're out of work for so long and your coverage runs out, you'll have to pay COBRA to continue it. That seems to be the way it is for most trade unions that I know of.

Care to explain why you said he was "WRONG"?


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

Lone Crapshooter, to answer your question, in my local we do not pay out of our check, we pay out of our "package". We contribute 25% to Health and Welfare, so if a journeyman works the whole year with a little bit of OT here and there he makes about $100K. He pays $25K to health insurance.

Again, that $25K did not come out of the $100K, it was contributed separately from the contractor.


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

SideWorker said:


> wwilson174, BDB said the following:
> 
> And you said that he was "WRONG".
> 
> ...


Certainly: He was wrong when he said money for insurance was taken from his check, I don't believe it was. You are correct in saying that when you are not working these benefits eventually cease. My comments were in regard to my experience over my career which had very few and brief periods of unemployment and never resulted in the loss of my benefits. Unfortunately for a great many of our brothers the current recession will undoubtedly result in the loss of their benefits. This is tragic in the richest and most powerful nation that the world has ever known. Hopefully the current effort to improve our health system will be successful. BillW


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

wwilson174 said:


> Certainly: He was wrong when he said money for insurance was taken from his check


 He never said money was taken from his check. You could just scroll up and read exactly what he said.



> You are correct in saying that when you are not working these benefits eventually cease. My comments were in regard to my experience over my career which had very few and brief periods of unemployment and never resulted in the loss of my benefits. Unfortunately for a great many of our brothers the current recession will undoubtetly result in the loss of their benefits. This is tragic in the richest and most powerful nation that the world has ever known. Hopefully the current effort to improve our health system will be successful. BillW


So just come out and apologize to him for making a mistake and jumping on him for no reason.


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## wwilson174 (Apr 25, 2008)

I jumped on him for posting rumors, the details are unimportant!


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

wwilson174 said:


> I jumped on him for posting rumors, the details are unimportant!


For the last time, BDB did *NOT* post rumors. He posted factual information. You told him he was wrong when it was *you* who was wrong. 

Is this that hard to understand?


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

SideWorker said:


> Lone Crapshooter, to answer your question, in my local we do not pay out of our check, we pay out of our "envelope". We contribute 25% to Health and Welfare, so if a journeyman works the whole year with a little bit of OT here and there he makes about $100K. He pays $25K to health insurance.
> 
> Again, that $25K did not come out of the $100K, it was contributed separately from the contractor.


 
You have an hourly rate then the perks (what we call loaded rate) which includes all the extras. Such as Insurance and donations to retirement plans ETC.


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

brian john said:


> You have an hourly rate then the perks (what we call loaded rate) which includes all the extras. Such as Insurance and donations to retirement plans ETC.


Oh I understand exactly how it works. We call it the package and the envelope.

The package has contributions such as Health and Welfare (25%), Pension (11%), Annuity (11%), JATC (1.25%), etc.


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## knowshorts (Jan 9, 2009)

Alright guys, pay attention. You DO pay for your own health benefits. Sure the contractor writes the check, but you pay. Lets say for the sake of argument, a new three year contract is worth $9.00 over those three years. Typically there is a special called meeting every 6 months to determine money allocation. Let's say the 1st six month period, you have $1.50 going to the members. It might get divided up, $.040 on the check, $0.25 pension, $0.25 annuity, $0.10 JATC, $0.35 health and wellfare, and $0.15 retirees medical. Gets voted on and approved. YOU just paid additional for your medical. That money could have gone into your pocket. 

I am guessing the average cost of medical taken out of check on the west coast is $6.00. Multiply that by an average of 1500 hours worked in a year. You just spent $9000 in medical benefits. 

Members would be better off taking THEIR money and purchasing their own policy. Or how about getting added on by their spouse or domestic partner? The locals just want to be in control of your money. Think of the administaton costs required to run your health and wellfare department.


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## BDB (Jul 9, 2008)

wwilson174 said:


> Certainly: He was wrong when he said money for insurance was taken from his check,


WRONG!!!!!!!(hmmmm feels pretty good to answer with an attitude):thumbup: I never said it was taken out of my(yours or anyone else) check.


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## drsparky (Nov 13, 2008)

knowshorts said:


> Alright guys, pay attention. You DO pay for your own health benefits. Sure the contractor writes the check, but you pay. Lets say for the sake of argument, a new three year contract is worth $9.00 over those three years. Typically there is a special called meeting every 6 months to determine money allocation. Let's say the 1st six month period, you have $1.50 going to the members. It might get divided up, $.040 on the check, $0.25 pension, $0.25 annuity, $0.10 JATC, $0.35 health and wellfare, and $0.15 retirees medical. Gets voted on and approved. YOU just paid additional for your medical. That money could have gone into your pocket.
> 
> I am guessing the average cost of medical taken out of check on the west coast is $6.00. Multiply that by an average of 1500 hours worked in a year. You just spent $9000 in medical benefits.
> 
> Members would be better off taking THEIR money and purchasing their own policy. Or how about getting added on by their spouse or domestic partner? The locals just want to be in control of your money. Think of the administaton costs required to run your health and wellfare department.


Anything on the check is taxable. If you took the $9000 on the check you would loose $1800 to the federal government in taxes and in Maine about $600 would go to the governor. So now you have $6600 for you medical. I think I will stay with our plan.


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## SideWorker (Aug 2, 2009)

knowshorts said:


> Alright guys, pay attention. You DO pay for your own health benefits. Sure the contractor writes the check, but you pay. Lets say for the sake of argument, a new three year contract is worth $9.00 over those three years. Typically there is a special called meeting every 6 months to determine money allocation. Let's say the 1st six month period, you have $1.50 going to the members. It might get divided up, $.040 on the check, $0.25 pension, $0.25 annuity, $0.10 JATC, $0.35 health and wellfare, and $0.15 retirees medical. Gets voted on and approved. YOU just paid additional for your medical. That money could have gone into your pocket.
> 
> I am guessing the average cost of medical taken out of check on the west coast is $6.00. Multiply that by an average of 1500 hours worked in a year. You just spent $9000 in medical benefits.
> 
> Members would be better off taking THEIR money and purchasing their own policy. Or how about getting added on by their spouse or domestic partner? The locals just want to be in control of your money. Think of the administaton costs required to run your health and wellfare department.


I agree with you completely. For the $25K I paid last year, I got pretty crappy coverage.


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

Every local has there own plan, there is no IBEW plan that covers all the locals in the IBEW. Your plan is part of your negotiated contract and the structure,cost,and provider varies from local to local.
For example my local has personal choice level 5.Last year it cost around $9 an hour and you needed 350 hours a quarter to be covered for the next quarter.If you did not reach the hours your coverage would be loss for that next quarter,Unless,1 you were back to work full time in the quarter or 2,There is 3% unemployment or more then the local would carry your coverage until you went back to work.

Earlier this year when work started to dry up we voted at a special meeting to divert a $3 an hour contract increase to health and well fair and an unemployment fund to help carry the unemployed members.
I know a few guy's who have been out of work since Feb. who's beni's are still covering them and there family.

As for co-pays we pay $5 for doctor's visit's.No co-pay for E.R visits,$10 for P.T and no referrals.
Scrip's cost $10 for name brand drugs and no co-pay for generic's.

This is an example of My locals plan every local has there own.
We pay a little over $10 an hour for our coverage,The contractor pays it straight to the health and well fair office,It is not deducted from our pay check.

As for the cost,it is a very good deal compared to what other building trades are paying for there's in our area.A few trades are paying $15 and more for less coverage.


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## Lone Crapshooter (Nov 8, 2008)

I want to thank everyone for their input
LC


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## vasparky27 (Sep 3, 2010)

Yes I am reposting too and old thread w a new question 

How does the health package work for Ce/Cw's?


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## Brother Noah1 (Mar 23, 2010)

vasparky27 said:


> Yes I am reposting too and old thread w a new question
> 
> How does the health package work for Ce/Cw's?


 From what I have witnessed it is different in every local depending on their small works contract in most cases. I have seen one local pay a less expensive H&W for the ce/cw's and no retirement until they become full members, also no H&W or retirement unless they pay their self.I am no fan of this new program because I think not only does it deregulate what a journeyman can earn plying the trade but it is also abusive to the ce/cw workers.The one thing I do think this program offers is easy access to the IBEW.Wow I sure hope if I do make it to be in my mid 70's and make any sort of error posting that I do not receive the same treatment.


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## Loose Neutral (Jun 3, 2009)

Damn I have to start looking at the dates. Anyways the main reason our health care ( mine $10 an hour) is so expensive is the hour bank for when you are unemployed and retirees health care. Yeah you can get cheaper insurance, but you won't get those benefits.


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## Mr Rewire (Jan 15, 2011)

To self pay costs $625.00


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## pedroj02 (Dec 4, 2008)

Excuse me if I'm posting in the wrong area . I am 62 in the way to be retired from local 349 .Can I get any health insurance from IBEW? any help, please [email protected] with any information, Thank


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