[glenntaj]

--at least until the day there is universal coverage (in the US) under a system with far less complexity that's far easier to understand.

In the process of getting together my records for the 2007 fiscal year, in order to get tax returns started, I took a look at my wife's last paycheck stub for the year. (Our family receives insurance through my wife's place of employment, and while we shan't mention names, the company's initials are the Child Care Center of NY. ). The employer offers a number of health care plans, and also a flexible spending account for non-reimbursed medical expenses, both are deducted from paychecks. But when I looked closely, I noticed that only the flex plan was designated as being funded through pre-tax dollars; the insurance premiums were not.

This, of course, came as a complete surprise to me. Not having had reason to look closely at my wife's pay stubs previously, I had assumed that all of these deductions were made using pre-tax monies--that is to say, taxes are not figured on the pay until all dedicated deductions are subtracted. Ever since this was legislated, almost every company I know has used this method to save employees money on their tax bills. Given the ever increasing contributions that employees are being asked to pay towards their coverage, this can be a pretty substantial tax saving.

I naturally was not happy, and asked my wife to investigate. I eventually wound up contacting her human resources director. He initially said he thought that insurance premiums did not fall into this category. When I assured him they could--I have previous human resources experience myself--he went to do a little investigating and, surprise, yes, these deductions could be made with pre-tax dollars, and he was going to institute that right away.

The point to be made here is don't assume the employer, union, or organization you get your coverage through always has researched all the options to cut the bill; don't assume they are necessarily competent or vigilant in this area. Scrutinize your statements and materials carefully, and speak up if something seems amiss.

I've probably saved the employees there, on average, several hundred dollars on their tax bills for the coming year. I imagine as this info gets disseminated, though, there's going to be some disgruntlement among employees who are going to wonder why a non-employee had to point this out, why the human resource/benefits people did not investigate the possibility, which means employees there have likely lost significant monies over the past several years. (Don't know if this rises to negligence, but I know I was ****** off. And if I were an executive there, I'd be looking for a new head of human resources.)

The bottom line--beyond the ingrained problems of our current health system, there's a lot of waste, lack of savvy, and plain old incompetence out there. Keep a critical eye out.
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[Alffe]

You sound a lot like Mr.Alffe. Read the fine print and read it again. Look carefully at your utility bills too.

Thank you glenntaj.