Technical Support
08-29-2003, 09:53 AM
The following are quoted comments from a previous topic:
Health insurance is something that I cannot be without.
I currently have very inexpensive health insurance as a full-time employee.
My question is if I am working part-time with various agencies, how am I to secure my health insurance at a reasonable price?
To me, health insurance is very important in accepting any kind of job, and it makes me a bit leery to think I would be giving up full-time hours with all the benefits that are included for part-time work with several different agencies. Yeah, the pay may be better but the benefits of full-time work (especially the health insurance) is worth a lot.
Any information on either topic would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all in advance for their time and contribution. Take care and I look forward to talking to everyone more in the future.
Welcome Joe. Thanks for joining us here. :)
Health Insurance
1) If you are in your 20's (age), and are in good health, the average self-employed out-of-pocket benefits package that IPIU has found is . . . $75 to $100 per month. This is called an individual "reimbursement plan", and is not a group plan.
2) The plan covers dental, eye, accident, doctor visits, physicals, and major hospital.
3) Benefits covered by employer group plans are usually figured at an extra $1.00 per hour over a 40-hr work week for their cost. Most states require that employers offer group plans (which is figured on the sickest employee at the company, and results in higher costs).
NOTE: If you are asked to perform an assignment that pays $20-$25 per hour without benefits, you may be wise in setting up a part-time plan for yourself. (IPIU will have more information on this plan net year, but encourages union members to post their ideas and sources in the Level 3 Access Membership Benefits Forum (http://www.ipiu.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=91) ).
4) If you are earning less than $20,000 per year, you can qualify for free prescriptions, such as high blood pressure and anti-depression drugs that normally cost $1.50 per pill at your local Wal-Mart. (We will also have more information and applications for members on this too.)
5) If you are employed by another company, and doing private investigations part-time, we can show you how to have an annual cost of gasoline for $1.00 per gallon instead of $1.70 per gallon. We can also show you how to reformat your Employee Deductions from your regular job to save an additional $500 a year that you are over-paying in social security and federal taxes. But to do this, you need to be a self-employed private investigator to offset the income on your return.
Thanks for the questions.
(If anyone else has good advice for Joe, please step in here and hit the "Reply" button.)
David
General benefit information is in the other forum titled UNION ASSOCIATION NEWS, under the topic titled Membership Information.
If you already sent an email to benefits@ipiu.org , then you would have already received an automated response back to your email box outlining when you will receive the information.
Other than that, if you have a placement membership with IPIU then you will be able to ask each agency manager about their individual health benefits offered.
Hi, I,m still wondering about the benefits that us members are entitled to. I sent an email to benefits@ipiu.org but I get this automated reply saying they are revising the benifits package and they will notify me. It has been almost a month now. I started a thread a week ago about this but before I knew it my thread was gone and I didn't get a chance to read all of my replys. I would like to have any information on how to go about getting some of these benefits.
Thankyou
I'm not sure what you have already read, but the benefits package contains more than just one benefit and one package. It was stated a few weeks ago that some of the costs to IPIU were too high in order to keep the dues low. We are trying to get better prices to pass along at a deep discount, and expect it to be available next year.
If you sent the email in, then they keep your name on a preferred list. You'll be notified via email.
Thank you for your patience.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you ARE allowed to have another job (FT/PT) in addition to the work you do here. If you have a really good benefits package then I would keep the job you have now (at least for awhile), until I could make sure that I had enough work from IPIU. You don't want to go from a steady, full-time income down to only a part-time income, which could happen for a while until you really get established.
Keeping your present job with the insurance while becoming established with IPIU would give you a chance to check out the benefits more closely, and maybe compare them to what you have now. I don't know of any law against having more than one insurance. Maybe you could have both? Once you get truly established here and things are going full-time, then you can quit your other job and drop the insurance. If you really felt that you needed another policy in addition to what they have here, then you would always be free to buy one for yourself wherever you are happy.
This is just my opinion, but it's something to think about.
Health insurance is something that I cannot be without.
I currently have very inexpensive health insurance as a full-time employee.
My question is if I am working part-time with various agencies, how am I to secure my health insurance at a reasonable price?
To me, health insurance is very important in accepting any kind of job, and it makes me a bit leery to think I would be giving up full-time hours with all the benefits that are included for part-time work with several different agencies. Yeah, the pay may be better but the benefits of full-time work (especially the health insurance) is worth a lot.
Any information on either topic would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all in advance for their time and contribution. Take care and I look forward to talking to everyone more in the future.
Welcome Joe. Thanks for joining us here. :)
Health Insurance
1) If you are in your 20's (age), and are in good health, the average self-employed out-of-pocket benefits package that IPIU has found is . . . $75 to $100 per month. This is called an individual "reimbursement plan", and is not a group plan.
2) The plan covers dental, eye, accident, doctor visits, physicals, and major hospital.
3) Benefits covered by employer group plans are usually figured at an extra $1.00 per hour over a 40-hr work week for their cost. Most states require that employers offer group plans (which is figured on the sickest employee at the company, and results in higher costs).
NOTE: If you are asked to perform an assignment that pays $20-$25 per hour without benefits, you may be wise in setting up a part-time plan for yourself. (IPIU will have more information on this plan net year, but encourages union members to post their ideas and sources in the Level 3 Access Membership Benefits Forum (http://www.ipiu.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=91) ).
4) If you are earning less than $20,000 per year, you can qualify for free prescriptions, such as high blood pressure and anti-depression drugs that normally cost $1.50 per pill at your local Wal-Mart. (We will also have more information and applications for members on this too.)
5) If you are employed by another company, and doing private investigations part-time, we can show you how to have an annual cost of gasoline for $1.00 per gallon instead of $1.70 per gallon. We can also show you how to reformat your Employee Deductions from your regular job to save an additional $500 a year that you are over-paying in social security and federal taxes. But to do this, you need to be a self-employed private investigator to offset the income on your return.
Thanks for the questions.
(If anyone else has good advice for Joe, please step in here and hit the "Reply" button.)
David
General benefit information is in the other forum titled UNION ASSOCIATION NEWS, under the topic titled Membership Information.
If you already sent an email to benefits@ipiu.org , then you would have already received an automated response back to your email box outlining when you will receive the information.
Other than that, if you have a placement membership with IPIU then you will be able to ask each agency manager about their individual health benefits offered.
Hi, I,m still wondering about the benefits that us members are entitled to. I sent an email to benefits@ipiu.org but I get this automated reply saying they are revising the benifits package and they will notify me. It has been almost a month now. I started a thread a week ago about this but before I knew it my thread was gone and I didn't get a chance to read all of my replys. I would like to have any information on how to go about getting some of these benefits.
Thankyou
I'm not sure what you have already read, but the benefits package contains more than just one benefit and one package. It was stated a few weeks ago that some of the costs to IPIU were too high in order to keep the dues low. We are trying to get better prices to pass along at a deep discount, and expect it to be available next year.
If you sent the email in, then they keep your name on a preferred list. You'll be notified via email.
Thank you for your patience.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you ARE allowed to have another job (FT/PT) in addition to the work you do here. If you have a really good benefits package then I would keep the job you have now (at least for awhile), until I could make sure that I had enough work from IPIU. You don't want to go from a steady, full-time income down to only a part-time income, which could happen for a while until you really get established.
Keeping your present job with the insurance while becoming established with IPIU would give you a chance to check out the benefits more closely, and maybe compare them to what you have now. I don't know of any law against having more than one insurance. Maybe you could have both? Once you get truly established here and things are going full-time, then you can quit your other job and drop the insurance. If you really felt that you needed another policy in addition to what they have here, then you would always be free to buy one for yourself wherever you are happy.
This is just my opinion, but it's something to think about.