Adding Children to Self + Spouse

[jimdrang]

Hi guys

Great forum; have a question about insurance premiums for various options:

I noticed that the price of insuring myself vs the price of myself + children is about $300 difference on the PPO I am looking at.

The price of myself +spouse vs the price of myself + family is about $2 difference.

So essentially adding the children is $300 less relatively speaking if my wife is already on the plan.

My guess is they are assuming a couple with children has a less % chance of having more children so they decrease projections of paying for maternity and that subsidizes the cost of adding the children.

Is this true or is it something else I am missing?

Thanks

 

[jimdrang]

Title should read children:
bump.

Any thoughts or other places I could ask?

 

[Dave020]

Re: Adding Childred to Self + Spouse

Often rates for health insurance, especially employer sponsored group plans look something like this:

Subscriber $300
Subscriber + Spouse $900
Subscriber +Kids $500
Family $650-$700

The anomoly is the subscriber+spouse rate. Actuaries have determined over time that the dependent spouse tends to utilize twice the benefits of the primary subscriber. So the highest price point is generally subscriber+spouse because it causes the highest utilization. Once you add kids in the mix, the overall family utilization is lower and the subsequent premium reflects it.

There certainly may be a maternity aspect to it.