How to Choose the Employee Health Benefits for Your Family

How to Choose the Employee Health Benefits for Your FamilyHow to Choose the Employee Health Benefits for Your FamilyWith health care premiums on the rise and employer group benefit plans offering less in terms of actual coverage, many consumers have found themselves struggling to choose the right benefits to meet their families needs. Should you accept the group benefits offered by an employer, or would you be better off selecting a plan thats offered by a state-approved marketplace to take advantage of tax savings and government subsidies? Barriers to Selecting the Right Benefits for Families The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was supposed to help families to obtain low-cost health insurance and wellness coverage while supporting long-term, responsible use of health care. Unfortunately, many families have found theyre faced with premiums that are far from affordable, and a wide range of costs that arent covered when theyre trying to find health care services. Surprise medical bills h ave become commonplace because consumers may find it difficult to understand the plans. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey revealed that nearly seven in 10 of individuals with unaffordable out-of-network medical bills did not know the health care provider was not in their plans network at the time they received care. Granted, these issues are being worked out as health care reorganisation changes the landscape of benefits. Meanwhile, talk with your HR administrator to sort out problems like these. Working closely with the benefits liaison can help, as can following some guidelines. Identify Pressing Needs Identify what pressing health needs or goals you must address this year. Your family should have a fairly good idea of the health concerns that need attention before the time for open enrollment comes around again. Some health goals should be discussed even if your focus is just on preventative care. Things like pregnancy and pre-existing illnesses need additional attention. Compare Explanation of Benefits (EOB) Documents Review and compare all plan EOB documents carefully. There might be a ton of information to go over, but the best place to start is by gathering the documents that list the benefit information for each plan. Get these from both spouses workplaces if youre married, then go through them to determine and compare the plan premiums, the deductibles, and the out-of-pocket costs for office visits, ER visits, and prescriptions. Look Into State Benefits Go through the process of inquiring about state marketplace benefits. Head on over to the health care reform website and find your states health marketplace. Login and enter the demographics for your family, including your annual income, and all family members in your household youll be covering. Youll end up getting several quotes, so be sure to review these EOBs along with what you already have. Required Minimum Coverage Select the health care plans that offer required minimum coverag e at the best rates. Go with the plan that offers you the best possible percentage cover amounts for your networks, the least amount of out-of-pocket costs and deductibles, and the best perks for your family. Some plans might offer similar coverage amounts, but the monthly premium will be different. You could get a plan thats equal to or better than what your workplace offers with less cost to you if you qualify for a government subsidy. Sign Up Early Sign up for the company-sponsored health savings arrangement if one is available to you. Do so after youve selected a suitable health care plan for your family, especially if its a high deductible plan. You can save money by purchasing any prescriptions and paying for non-covered costs using pre-tax dollars.

Simply Hired to Collaborate at White House Jobs Jam

Simply Hired to Collaborate at White House Jobs JamSimply Hired to Collaborate at White House Jobs JamAs an organization that strives to connect the right people to the right job opportunities, Simply Hired is pleased to announce that it is attending todays 21st Century Jobs Jam organized by the White Houses Office of Science and Technology Policy. The Jobs Jam will focus on jobs, labor and skills for middle-class workers.A Focus on CollaborationThree representatives from Simply Hired will attend Jike Chong, head of data science Delaney Parker, staff software engineer and Jolene Lee, product design strategist. They join a select group of entrepreneurs, technology leaders and innovative state labor and workforce experts to collaborate on strategies to help Americans connect with job opportunities.Its really exciting to see experts coming together across the industry to collectively solve the problem. Im looking forward to collaborating and understanding the various ways we can help ch ange peoples lives for the better, Lee said. This project is a great fit for Simply Hired because this is where the job seekers are. We can use our vast amount of data in compelling ways to make employment insights easier to obtain.A Focus on QualityThe federal government has long focused on ways to keep Americans employed, going back to President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Dealprograms, which provided jobs for millions of Americans during the Great Depression. The focus of the current administration is bedrngnis merely to ensure that Americans are employed but to provide ways for workers to find good jobs. The government qualifies a good job as one that provides access to training that allows workers to develop skills and leads to better pay and career growth.Quality is at the foundation of the algorithms that drive our technology, Chong said. Theres a distinction between a job and a good job, and the quality of our work impacts real peoples lives. Im looking forward to this forum because the attitude of the White House fits our mission so well. At Simply Hired we create solutions to help employers find quality candidates and help job seekers find the right jobs.A Focus on InnovationThe stated goal for the Jobs Jam is to find ways to access available job seeker data, use technology and tools to connect job seekers with jobs and elevate awareness of available resources.Im so glad the government understands that these elements need to work together, Parker said. We cant drive innovation without a thorough understanding of past and current behaviors. The data-driven approach is critical.Well report on Simply Hireds experience at the Jobs Jam next week after Chong, Parker and Lee return.

Here is how much money computer jobs make in every state

Here is how much money computer jobs make in every stateHere is how much money computer jobs make in every stateAmazonbacked outof its plans to build an office in New York, citing the pushback and criticism from politicians likeAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez.Even ifsome peopleare still hoping Amazon will reconsider, the entire idea behind bringing Amazon to Queens, NY was for job creation. Getting a job working on computers is supposed to be a lucrative career path, and we wanted to understand more about how compensation for tech workers changes around the country.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreComputer jobs are well paid compared to what everyone else makes.Tech workers in some states like California enjoy above average income levels.However, the extremely high cost of living in California more than offsets the wage premium employers are paying.Our data come from theU.S. Bureau of L abor Statistics. We focused on three types or categories of jobs, computer programmers, software developers and web developers. We plotted the average wage for each in every state, letting you easily see the best-paying tech jobs where you live and around the country.At the highest level, software developers tend to make the most money across every state. There are only a couple exceptions on our map, including places like Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska. But how many computer jobs are really located in these states? Weve got nothing against rural America, but theyre not exactly well known job markets for tech talent. In other words, the fact that software developers arent the most highly paid probably has more to do with the lack of sufficient sample sizes.Another broad trend is that computer jobs are generally very well paid, but not everywhere. Take Wisconsin, for example. Programmers pull in $76K, software developers $86K and web developers just $53K. To put these figures in persp ective, zentralwert household income in the U.S. across all workers is justover $63K. For all the hype on tech jobs, these arent the sort of numbers that would make an early retirement possible.This is made all the more obvious when you consider how the traditional hotbeds of tech talent arent paying high six-figure salaries either. In California, software developers can take home $126K, which at first glance seems like a lot. In San Jose, you need to make at least$274Kto afford a home. A married couple of software developers would still stretch their budget to put a roof over their heads.We arent taking sides Amazons decision to pull out of New York, however, theres no denying a job working on a computer is a great gig.This article originally appeared on How Much.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will doubl e your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people