The first company I worked for had a dedicated department, of maybe two or three employees, focused entirely on “employee wellness.” They offered services like body fat analysis but didn’t go as far as this company in requiring them. Personally, I think the motivations are good but I can see how people would think that’s invasive.

My company didn’t require you to participate in their programs but they did provide incentives for doing so. The medical insurance provider was called Lumenos and they offered a program in which you were given $1,500 a year to cover your medical costs. If you didn’t use the funds, it was rolled over into the next year. If you did and your costs exceeded $1,500, you covered the costs up to $2,000 (an additional $500), and then traditional health insurance would kick in (10% co-pays, etc.) beyond $2,000. It worked fantastically well for young professionals who, in general, have little in the way of medical costs. They incentivized participation in wellness programs by offering medical coverage money. Fill out a health survey and get $20. Participate in this program, get $25. It wasn’t required, you didn’t really get “paid,” but it boosted participation and got people thinking about wellness.

I think requiring it would’ve caused a backlash.

Either way, wellness programs are boosting the bottom lines at businesses by cutting medical costs. Everyone knows preventative care is cheaper than treating illnesses or conditions on the other end, everyone including prescription drug and treatment companies (fire away!). This was the topic of a Marketplace segment a couple weeks ago and they found that at Gilsbar, costs are lowered when you introduce preventative care measures. Here’s a quote from the segment:

Doug Layman (executive VP at Gilsbar): Our health plan costs are 6 percent lower than they were five years ago. Our prescription drug costs, which everybody complains about, is 45 percent lower than they were five years ago. And 85 percent say their benefits package is better today than it was five years ago. Yet we’re paying less, and we have happier, more productive people.

That’s one of the reasons why countries with nationally subsidized health care programs pay far less than we do - preventing something is cheaper than curing something. It’s a big joke that Americans pay the most for health care yet don’t find themselves with the best care (in fairness, I’ve heard the argument against that is that our best of the best is far superior to other countries but the “average” care received any one member of the population is below other countries).

Getting back to the wellness programs, does your company offer something like this? If so, do they require anything or is everything optional? What would you think about being forced to do a body fat analysis? What if you had to pay more based on the status of your health?

One of my good friends has an opportunity to work on a client engagement in London, England, and started asking me about international medical insurance options for his ladyfriend. He will have medical insurance through his employer but his ladyfriend, if she chooses to live in England while he’s on this half-year engagement, will not have any medical insurance because they aren’t married and because she’ll have left her job. So, in chatting it up with him, the question of international medical insurance came up and he asked if I, in my infinite wisdom, could do a little research on his behalf and maybe write about it.

International medical insurance, or travel medical insurance, is pretty straightforward in terms of its offering and I was surprised at how cheap it was. The first step though is to see if you qualify for an ISIC Card because it gives you access to discounts and some supplemental insurance. Also, they recommend that you purchase travel insurance because it often includes some basic medical and accident coverage. If you are “a full-time student, a teacher or are under 26 years old,” then you’re eligible for the card.

Now, onto the insurance…

Abroad-Only Coverage vs. Both

Abroad-only coverage means that you only have medical insurance coverage outside the United States. The Both option refers to medical coverage in the United States and abroad. The advantage of Abroad-only coverage is in cost because medical services abroad are often cheaper and Abroad-only coverage doesn’t not let you return to the United States for treatment. The advantage of both Abroad and Domestic coverage is that you can always return to the US to receive treatment though the coverage will always be more expensive than abroad only. One significant disadvantage of Abroad-only coverage is that it will not cover pre-existing conditions.

Abroad-Only Insurance Providers

If you already have insurance, the best option is to talk to your provider to see if they offer international coverage. If they don’t (or if you just want to review your options, there are several international insurance providers that cater to the travel and study abroad demographic. If you want the “both” option, your best bet is to use an insurance search engine to get a few names of US insurers and call them up for more information.

Cultural Insurance Services International - This program covers study abroad candidates with affordable temporary health insurance. My friend will not be studying abroad, which is one of the requirements, but if you are, this is certainly a reputable site references by many universities. (Highway to Health, Inc. is another well-regarded student insurance provider)

Gateway Plans - This is a more comprehensive medical insurance provider that isn’t restricted to only students studying abroad. In fact, Gateway offers plans for US citizens traveling abroad, internationals traveling to the US, and almost everything else in between. For my friend traveling to the UK, she’ll likely want the Gateway International plan. The Gateway International plans will cover you for a minimum of 15 days to a maximum of 180, or six months. The plan rates seems pretty straightforward, with $100,000 of coverage for only $4 a day. (Wallach & Company, Inc. is another well-regarded insurance provider)

Does anyone have any first-hand experience dealing with travel medical insurance or something similar? I’m afraid I’ve never actually purchased any so my research is based solely on Google and numerous university study abroad websites, nothing beats first hand.

One of the things I’ve been looking at lately, given the upcoming wedding, was how to optimize our insurance policies because, as we all know, multi-policy discounts are one of the best ways to get a discount. Two auto insurance policies with one insurer generally costs less than two separate auto insurance policies with two different insurers. In actuality, only the medical and auto insurance policies can be optimized because you don’t really share any others. Anyway, I was taking a look at our options and here’s what I came up with.

Auto insurance
This one will probably yield the biggest savings. When you decide to combine two auto insurance policies onto one, you get savings because of two reasons: You are statistically less risky because you’re married and the multiple policy discount. When you do optimize your auto insurance, you should do more than just add coverage to your policy (or add coverage to your spouse’s policy). You should start the whole auto insurance purchasing process over again and get multiple quotes so that you can compare. Two of those quotes should be adding you to your spouse’s policy and you adding your spouse to your own policy.

Medical insurance
Theoretically, given no prior negative medical history, one of you will simply go on the other’s policy for some quick savings. For example, my fiancee right now gets free health insurance and would also get free insurance for me if she were to add me to her policy after we are married. That’s clearly the easiest way to go… but there is another option available. If she were to add me to her policy and I were to add her to my policy, we’d get double the coverage. How is this valuable? This is most valuable if you expect to use your insurance a lot because it increases your lifetime limits. In such a strategy, I would submit claims against my insurer first and if they exceeded the lifetime or annual limits, I’d start all over with her insurance plan. The same would work in the reverse.

Are there other insurance policies you can optimize after marriage? Those were the only two I could think of.

Image by Laineys Repertoire.

Whether it’s medical benefits or free cash via a retirement account, I think many people underutilize the benefits they receive from work. I know I don’t think of using my free checkups/physicals until I have to re-enroll for the next year (coming up soon in July). Not only have you already paid for these benefits, it’ll help you live a healthier and fuller life!

Medical:
Every medical plan includes a routine examination and physical every single year at usually no cost to you. Ever hear of those stories where the doctor caught something that could’ve been much worse in a routine physical? All you have to do is schedule an appointment, go in, and get yourself checked out. As you grow older, other preventative maintenance examinations are also included. If they don’t find anything out of the ordinary, that’s great. If they do? Then they’ll have caught it as early as realistically possibly, every year. In addition to these, your plan may include chiropractor’s visits or other sorts of doctor’s visits you wouldn’t even have thought of. Take a look at your plans and see what you can get for free.

Dental:
Again, a free dental cleaning every year. You may absolutely hate going to the dentist but if you go every year then small cavities are caught before their large cavities and anything else that could be problematic can be detected early. Plus, if your teeth are cleaned infrequently then it’ll take a much harder scrubbing to get them clean.

Vision:
If you’re enrolled in a vision plan, typically a yearly exam is also included for free. Get those eyes checked and be able to see correctly. Some plans also include a free pair of glasses or a number of pairs of contacts each year for free (think of it really as paying up front).

401k:
I didn’t want to leave “free” benefits without talking about the free company match contribution to a 401k. As much as it’s been brought to the forefront by mainstream media, lots of people still don’t contribute to their retirement plans! My company will fully match the first 2% and 50% of the next 2% of your contribution. At my company, that contribution is fully vested immediately (some plans require a longer time period, 5 years seems to be typical) so it’s worth it even if I intended to leave tomorrow.

Have I missed any? Let me know!