Comair Health Benefits

[Whitestoneclimb]

How are the health insurance benefits @ Comair? Dental? Vision?

 

[jarhead]

How are the health insurance benefits @ Comair? Dental? Vision?

Don't get sick, injured, or let your wife deliver a child on the CMR health insurance plan and you'll be just fine. Also, don't get any cavities in your teeth.

It's almost like being self insured! You pay da bill!

 

[Chosen One]

Don't get sick, injured, or let your wife deliver a child on the CMR health insurance plan and you'll be just fine. Also, don't get any cavities in your teeth.

It's almost like being self insured! You pay da bill!

Don't listen to this guy. Benefits are pretty darn good.

 

[jarhead]

Don't listen to this guy. Benefits are pretty darn good.

Have you not seen all the complaints and discontent with the new insurance company on the CMR ALPA boards? It's gone south big time after Linda changed insurance companies. NOBODY is happy about it now. Read the ALPA boards!

 

[Chosen One]

Have you not seen all the complaints and discontent with the new insurance company on the CMR ALPA boards? It's gone south big time after Linda changed insurance companies. NOBODY is happy about it now. Read the ALPA boards!

Yeah I know, Anthem was cheaper than United Health care. But it's still WAY better than any number of 9-5 jobs out there. My wife's former company had Anthem, and the two of us would have been $175/month! To say "It's almost like being self insured! You pay da bill!" is slightly exaggerated. But of-course I forgot what forum this was, I should have expected that. Besides, do you even work for Comair?

 

[jarhead]

Yeah I know, Anthem was cheaper than United Health care. But it's still WAY better than any number of 9-5 jobs out there. My wife's former company had Anthem, and the two of us would have been $175/month! To say "It's almost like being self insured! You pay da bill!" is slightly exaggerated. But of-course I forgot what forum this was, I should have expected that. Besides, do you even work for Comair?

My son is a nine year Comair Captain.......I get the scoop on it straight from the horses mouth. He ain't happy about it!

 

[chperplt]

Jarhead

Yes, the new insurance plan is more expensive than the old plan. Saying it is crap is rather ignorant on your part. Your son bitches about the cost because it's a different insurance plan than we had last year and costs more out of pocket. I read the ALPA boards just as much as you and we both know people bitch about everyone.. and on the ALPA board it's the same people bitching about everything.

Take a little comparison of what other companies give now a days and we still have a good plan.

By the way.. Dental didn't change from last year and neither did vision. Cavaties are paid at 100%...meaning no charge to the employee. Not even an office co-pay.

 

[chperplt]

To answer the initial question.

You get your choice of an HMO or PPO through Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Sheild. I have the PPO and pay about 50 bucks a paycheck for both my wife and I. $15 co-pay, $7 generic and $15 brand name meds.. You pay a portion of labs/Xrays. Dental is through MetLife and costs me another 3 bucks a paycheck. They cover quite a lot of things at no cost to you. Root Canal for instance costs you nothing where as most insurance plans make you pay 20%. Vision is basic coverage and is no additional cost.

 

[jarhead]

Jarhead



By the way.. Dental didn't change from last year and neither did vision. Cavaties are paid at 100%...meaning no charge to the employee. Not even an office co-pay.

OK, straight forward question.......did the choice of who you could pick for a dentist change? My son had a filing done last week that was pure torture, as the novocaine never did take hold. He felt it was an incompetent dentist.

Also, is it true that some doctors will not accept Comair insurance due to the hassle of getting paid. That's what the grape vine is saying to me. Am I wrong?

 

[Whitestoneclimb]

Thanks for the replies. I interview on Tuesday.

 

[jarhead]

Thanks for the replies. I interview on Tuesday.

Good luck! Comair is a great place to work. I just wanted to be up front with you about some disention in the ranks about the medical insurance. It's a big enough issue where the union leadership is looking into it as a possible violation of the pilot's contract. Nothing is perfect, but that said, I think you'll like Comair if you go to work there.

 

[rvsm410]

Are the medical and dental bennies the same for non pilot employees, ie dispatchers?? when do they start after hire date?

It sounds like a very good plan compared to mine...my root canal just cost me 50% or $550 buck out of pocket...we have a yearly overage limit of $2000 as well......

 

[chperplt]

Benefits start on day 31 of employment..

Jarhead,

Dental benefits didn't change at all. You can pick any dentist you want on the Metlife provider list. If you want a dentist not on the list, they will pay 80% of the normally 100% items. I haven't found a dentist yet not on the list.

As far as people not taking the Comair insurance.. I highly doubt that. The insurance card says Blue Cross on it, not Comair. I've never had it turned down.

 

[jarhead]

Chperplt,

Perhaps my son’s bad experience with a dentist a couple weeks ago was a fluke. I hope so. He has always had good dental health, so he may not have a “regular” dentist to do work when he did need a filling. I’m sure we all can relate a horror story about a white knuckle episode in a dentist chair.

I base my other observations upon “scuttlebutt” I read about the discontent with the change in medical insurance off the CMR BB. I believe Cory has asked for pilots to document their experiences with problems with the new medical plan so they can build a case, if it has merit. I know you read the boards over there……I see your name over there, and you certainly must be aware of a growing discontent since the change in insurance.

I have no first hand knowledge of course, but it perplexes me as to why there seems to be a growing discontent with the out of pocket costs from last year to what is going on now. My anecdote about physicians refusing to accept Comair pilots as patients due to being stiffed or extreme slow payments of bills, is from various postings on those boards. Were they lies?

Are these guys all malcontents? Or might there be fire where there is smoke? It seems to be a rising “issue”. That’s all I was trying to point out to the thread starter.

 

[ShaftedbyJI]

Here's a question: If you don't work for comair then how the heck do you get on the comair alpa board????? shafted

 

[DDpaysoff]

It's fine

Just Don't get sick.

 

[wrigley23]

Just Don't get sick.

Amen brother. Don't get sick and brush your teeth and you're pretty much golden. Look, if you have to go to a doctor for anything other than your medical, be prepared to get screwed. I pay close to $1000 out of pocket a year just to make Oklahoma happy and every insurance I've had in the past six years has laughed at me when I send in my claim. I haven't had an issue in 23 years and the Feds are still hounding me. Oops, went on a rant. Never had to use Comair's benefits much, but from what I've seen, a very good deal indeed.

 

[jarhead]

deleted........

 

[chperplt]

Jarhead,

The reason people on the ALPA boards (pilots) are bitching about the new insurance is simple.. Our contract states that the company cannot switch insurance companies unless the new insurance is very similar. The United Heathcare coversage paid 100% for things like labs and Xrays and paid more for hospital visits. The Blue Cross plan while still overall a good plan, is more expensive than the previous plan and a violation of our contract.

The union is asking us to send in specifics examples of out of pocket expense increases so they will have an easier time grieving it.

For people new to Comair, these are very good benefits. For people switching from United Healthcare, they may suck. You get use to not paying much of anything. It's a shock when you are forced into the real world.

 

[jarhead]

Chperplt,

I believe we are on the same page about this "issue". From what I can tell, the newer policy is percieved by those who had the previous plan, to be inferior to the newer and more expensive policy. If there were to be a "substantial" change in coverage or cost, I believe it would require the union's sanction to make such a change to the PWA in force now. Kind of like the "agreement" to freeze wages for two years. Ya can't just "do it" without input and agreement from the pilots or their representatives, or it would be a viloation of the contract.

I guess it might boil down to defining "substantial change"