StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm leaving my current job -- the company I worked for was acquired by a larger company, which is located too far away for me to commute -- and I've agreed to stay on (working mostly from home) until that work is done, in early March, at which point I'll leave the company (which the company knows about). I have a good line on a job much closer to where I live, so I'm feeling pretty confident about staying employed, and that isn't the issue.

As of the beginning of this year I started on the new company's extended health benefits plan, which includes stuff like prescription eyewear ($200 per two years, plus an eye exam is covered, so I can get a pair of good sunglasses with my very weak prescription) and a "healthcare spending account" which allows me to spend $500 per year on anything that's a legitimate medical expense but isn't otherwise covered. For example, my oldest daughter could get braces and use this up pretty quickly.

My dilemma is this: if I do take advantage of this, and take as much as I can from the plan, I'll have paid very little into the plan, but will withdraw quite a bit from it, which means that the rates for everyone else will go up. I don't want to be "that guy", but at the same time I don't want to leave money on the table. I want to strike the proper balance between taking what is my entitlement -- I am paying into this after all, and it's part of my compensation package -- and abusing the system.

I can't really talk to people at work about this, and while I'm also asking selected members of my meat-space peer group, I am interested in what this crowd thinks.

So?

I'd say do it. The whole point of insurance in general is that the healthy basically fund the sick. People never balance it. They either pay more into insurance than they use, or they use more than they pay. That's the way the system works.

Milk it for all it's worth, it's not like the company didn't account for these things when they drew up the plan with their extended benefits provider. They know what the employee turnover is, how much they'll leach, and all that other stuff and it's all accounted for when they price out the plan. It's there, you've got it, so use it. Max it out, there's nothing to feel guilty about.

Go for it and don't worry about it.

I agree with the others, use it while you can. This is no different from a person working the minimum time needed to get benefits, using them, and then getting downsized out of the company.

I have to agree with the others here, if the new company didn't intend for you to use these benefits, they wouldn't have given them to you. Especially since this doesn't sound like something that's court mandated.

Consider as part of a severance package if that makes you feel better.

Doesn't almost everyone do this if they are about to leave a job? I thought this was common practice.

Since you're not able to turn these over into extended health insurance after leaving, or into a sizable bonus to your pay (as some jobs do), use the benefits now on all the things you need.

Screw the balance, take up what you're entitled to. Because if you don't do it somebody else will.

You don't owe them anything and you should take advantage of every benefit you can. Like Broomstick said, part of the severance package.

Borgholio wrote:The whole point of insurance in general is that the healthy basically fund the sick.
..
They either pay more into insurance than they use, or they use more than they pay. That's the way the system works.

This.

In a sense, you're not unbalancing it.

Insurance companies have already taken the statistics and probabilities into account and set the premiums and claim limits so that they are balanced (plus enough extra to cover operating costs and turn a profit for the insurer, obviously).

So this thing you're doing?
It's already taken into account. It's pretty much "okay".