Health insurance costs in biglaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know that this will vary by firm, but I'm hoping to get an idea of what to expect.

Please consider sharing:

• Firm name or range

• How many people your insurance covers (single? family?)

• Cost for medical

• Costs for dental

• Costs for vision

[Anonymous User]

Used to be in government where health insurance was very good so coming to a law firm and having poor medical insurance was disappointing.

- Goodwin
- Wife and me
- Chose the low deductible plan, $2,000 deductible for family, $760 per month for medical. I have to pay 10% co-pay for xray/MRI
- Dental and vision are total of $50 per month and are awful. Barely covers anything.

Wonder if this is market or if other firms have better medical.

[Anonymous User]

V50

Family plan

Medical: high deductible plan. It's about 500 a month and I contribute about the same each month to HSA. (regular plan would've been like 2k per month). Edit - firm does contribute to HSA, I think it's 1500.

Dental: I forget how much it costs, make 150 monthly? Worth it bc my kids have bad teeth.

Vision wasn't worth it so I opted out.

[Anonymous User]

Jesus. Even more incentive to go in house. High deductible ($5000k) plan that covers me and my spouse and it costs ~$50 per month. Also get $1000 contributed to my HSA by my employer.

[Anonymous User]

Amlaw200 (I assume) in a small market, single. Well under market salary and bonuses but at least my insurance I've never used is cheap.

High deductible health insurance plan - $0.00 per month

Dental - $20 per month

Vision - $5 per month

[Anonymous User]

Jesus. Even more incentive to go in house. High deductible ($5000k) plan that covers me and my spouse and it costs ~$50 per month. Also get $1000 contributed to my HSA by my employer.

Yep, in-house will have better benefits usually than biglaw.

My in-house High Deductible plan (single) was $2800 deductible and premiums of like $120 per month and HSA contributions per year from employer of $1400.

Just moved back into biglaw and my deductible is $5000, my premiums are ~$250 per month and no HSA contribution by firm.

[Anonymous User]

At my V50, medical high deductible plan is $1325/month and the coverage is pretty awful. My wife used to be a nurse and we paid $50/month for much better coverage.

[Anonymous User]

DPW

Family (spouse and multiple kids)

HDHP, 1100 a month. Plus they contribute some amount to the HSA (2k a year? idk)

[Anonymous User]

V50

Family plan

Medical: high deductible plan. It's about 500 a month and I contribute about the same each month to HSA. (regular plan would've been like 2k per month). Edit - firm does contribute to HSA, I think it's 1500.

Dental: I forget how much it costs, make 150 monthly? Worth it bc my kids have bad teeth.

Vision wasn't worth it so I opted out.

Why can't you just name the firm? My god. You're anonymous and this is information that applies to everybody at the firm. Don't post if you can't do the bare minimum.

Not trying to pick on you. This applies to everyone else in the thread referring to "V50" "V20" "V100". Please consider being useful. Thank you.

[Anonymous User]

V50

Family plan

Medical: high deductible plan. It's about 500 a month and I contribute about the same each month to HSA. (regular plan would've been like 2k per month). Edit - firm does contribute to HSA, I think it's 1500.

Dental: I forget how much it costs, make 150 monthly? Worth it bc my kids have bad teeth.

Vision wasn't worth it so I opted out.

Why can't you just name the firm? My god. You're anonymous and this is information that applies to everybody at the firm. Don't post if you can't do the bare minimum.

Not trying to pick on you. This applies to everyone else in the thread referring to "V50" "V20" "V100". Please consider being useful. Thank you.

OP here. I prefer to get the firm names, too, but I'm happy to get any information. I'd rather someone post and just say "V50" than not post at all.

[Anonymous User]

V50

Family plan

Medical: high deductible plan. It's about 500 a month and I contribute about the same each month to HSA. (regular plan would've been like 2k per month). Edit - firm does contribute to HSA, I think it's 1500.

Dental: I forget how much it costs, make 150 monthly? Worth it bc my kids have bad teeth.

Vision wasn't worth it so I opted out.

Why can't you just name the firm? My god. You're anonymous and this is information that applies to everybody at the firm. Don't post if you can't do the bare minimum.

Not trying to pick on you. This applies to everyone else in the thread referring to "V50" "V20" "V100". Please consider being useful. Thank you.

OP here. I prefer to get the firm names, too, but I'm happy to get any information. I'd rather someone post and just say "V50" than not post at all.

Why? Explain the reasoning behind why that would be at all necessary, useful, or even preferred? The only objective purpose to a thread like this is for people to be able to assess what costs are at respective firms. Health care costs play a role in the assessment of best options. Especially for people with families. It doesn't help anyone to blanket reference V50.

[Anonymous User]

Fenwick

-Cigna Enhanced HDHP ($400/month individual; $1100/month for self + 1)
-$1500 deductible (single)/$2800 individual or $3k family
-in network 10% after deductible; OON 30% after deductible
-Firm annual HSA contribution $750 (individual)/$1500 (family)
-Out of pocket max $2800 (self)/$2800 per individual up to $5k family (in network)

-Cigna Basic HDHP ($220/month individual; $740/month for self +1)
-$3k deductible (single)/$3k per individual up to $6k family
-in network 20% after deductible; OON 40% after deductible
-Firm annual HSA contribution $1500 (self)/$3000 (family)
-Out of pocket max $5k (self)/$5k per individual up to $10k family (in network)

-Cigna Dental PPO ($30/month individual; $60/month for self+1)
-$50 deductible (single)/$150 (family)
-$2k annual plan maximum per person

-Cigna Dental DMO ($10/month individual; $30/month for self +1)
-no deductible or annual plan maximum

VSP ($5/month individual; $8/month for self + 1)
-$20 copay for exam/materials yearly

Health insurance premiums are tiered based on how much money you make, so after your first year premiums will go up. Highest bracket is $250k & up.

[Anonymous User]

Williams & Connolly is free for either the traditional or high-deductible plan for one person. (I am a forever alone, but I understand that the family plan does cost a fair bit.)

[Anonymous User]

V50

Family plan

Medical: high deductible plan. It's about 500 a month and I contribute about the same each month to HSA. (regular plan would've been like 2k per month). Edit - firm does contribute to HSA, I think it's 1500.

Dental: I forget how much it costs, make 150 monthly? Worth it bc my kids have bad teeth.

Vision wasn't worth it so I opted out.

Why can't you just name the firm? My god. You're anonymous and this is information that applies to everybody at the firm. Don't post if you can't do the bare minimum.

Not trying to pick on you. This applies to everyone else in the thread referring to "V50" "V20" "V100". Please consider being useful. Thank you.

OP here. I prefer to get the firm names, too, but I'm happy to get any information. I'd rather someone post and just say "V50" than not post at all.

Why? Explain the reasoning behind why that would be at all necessary, useful, or even preferred? The only objective purpose to a thread like this is for people to be able to assess what costs are at respective firms. Health care costs play a role in the assessment of best options. Especially for people with families. It doesn't help anyone to blanket reference V50.

I’m not saying that there’s a reason for others to provide a vault range over the firm name. I’m saying that I’m a law student with no network or way of otherwise obtaining this information, so I’ll be thankful for whatever I get.

It is more helpful for me to generally hear what’s out there than for me to hear nothing at all. At least that allows me to anticipate my future budget and to, in the future, understand how my firm’s costs compare to others.

Again, I agree that the actual firm name is more helpful, but if the choice is between someone posting and saying “V50” or that person not posting at all, I prefer the former.

[Anonymous User]

-Cadwalader
-Spouse and me
-On a high deductible plan which is 1.5% of salary for me + my spouse, and it would be .75% for individual or 2.25% for family. $3,000 deductible.
-Dental and vision combined are $25 a month and gets a new pair of glasses a year.

[Anonymous User]

Partner at a Chicago firm (not Kirkland). Paid roughly 200 a month for a BCBS PPO as an associate and now pay around 1300 as a partner. This is just for me; the family plans are much more expensive. I have specific reasons for not wanting to be on my wife’s health insurance, but I am on her vision and dental and it’s some negligible amount (like $25) per month for both.

[Anonymous User]

Polsinelli

PPO | QHDHP

Employee: $245.00 | $41.00
Employee + Spouse: $1,351.00 | $451.00
Employee + Child(ren): $1,038.00 | $346.00
Family: $2,125.00 | $821.00

Dental

Employee $36.00
Employee + Spouse $75.00
Employee + Child(ren) $85.00
Employee + Family $119.00

Vision

Employee $7.32
Employee + Spouse $15.38
Employee + Child(ren) $13.19
Employee + Family $25.63

[Anonymous User]

Not going to dig up the dental and vision, but both are pretty good and very cheap. For medical -

Latham
Individual PPO
Deductible - $250 in network, $750 out of network
Out of Pocket Max - $2,750 in network, $3,750 out of network
Lots of preventative stuff is also covered at 90% after deductible
~350/month

[Anonymous User]

Sullivan & Cromwell

Not sure how things are now, but when I was there the low deductible PPO plan was free, with a $30 copay for PCP and a $50 copay for specialists. Great coverage and I once had a minor in office surgery done for just a $50 copay.
The HDHP was not free, but I can’t find the cost anymore because I went in house a few years ago. The firm contributes an amount to the HSA. Of course, I’m not aware of anyone who chose the HDHP since we have free PPO.

Sorry for the vague response my memory is not what it used to be now that my age has caught up with me.

[Anonymous User]

Sullivan & Cromwell

Not sure how things are now, but when I was there the low deductible PPO plan was free, with a $30 copay for PCP and a $50 copay for specialists. Great coverage and I once had a minor in office surgery done for just a $50 copay.
The HDHP was not free, but I can’t find the cost anymore because I went in house a few years ago. The firm contributes an amount to the HSA. Of course, I’m not aware of anyone who chose the HDHP since we have free PPO.

Sorry for the vague response my memory is not what it used to be now that my age has caught up with me.

Free insurance at biglaw is an amazing perk and a really useful factoid for applicants to know about. That's something like a 10k difference in comp.

I do find the HDHP situ a bit weird, why would the lesser product costs more?

[Anonymous User]

Sullivan & Cromwell

Not sure how things are now, but when I was there the low deductible PPO plan was free, with a $30 copay for PCP and a $50 copay for specialists. Great coverage and I once had a minor in office surgery done for just a $50 copay.
The HDHP was not free, but I can’t find the cost anymore because I went in house a few years ago. The firm contributes an amount to the HSA. Of course, I’m not aware of anyone who chose the HDHP since we have free PPO.

Sorry for the vague response my memory is not what it used to be now that my age has caught up with me.

Free insurance at biglaw is an amazing perk and a really useful factoid for applicants to know about. That's something like a 10k difference in comp.

I do find the HDHP situ a bit weird, why would the lesser product costs more?

Yeah, I think you have it backwards. Firms heavily subsidize HDHP because they want people off of the PPO plans. My firm doesn’t even offer PPO outside of California. The health insurance is garbage, and it costs like $350/month,

[Anonymous User]

Some of the costs in this thread are insane. I have a chronic health issue and take several medications and would be so frustrated to pay $500 a month for insurance.

My firm pays the premium for the high deductible plan, which has a $1200 deductible. At my old firm I paid $150 a month for the high deductible plan, which had a $2400 deductible.

[Anonymous User]

Sullivan & Cromwell

Not sure how things are now, but when I was there the low deductible PPO plan was free, with a $30 copay for PCP and a $50 copay for specialists. Great coverage and I once had a minor in office surgery done for just a $50 copay.
The HDHP was not free, but I can’t find the cost anymore because I went in house a few years ago. The firm contributes an amount to the HSA. Of course, I’m not aware of anyone who chose the HDHP since we have free PPO.

Sorry for the vague response my memory is not what it used to be now that my age has caught up with me.

Free insurance at biglaw is an amazing perk and a really useful factoid for applicants to know about. That's something like a 10k difference in comp.

I do find the HDHP situ a bit weird, why would the lesser product costs more?

Yeah, I think you have it backwards. Firms heavily subsidize HDHP because they want people off of the PPO plans. My firm doesn’t even offer PPO outside of California. The health insurance is garbage, and it costs like $350/month,

I know it’s weird that the lesser product costs more, and I had the same question as the both of you, but it’s exactly because I found it weird that even today I still remember the low deductible PPO was free. I had also seen doctors multiple times and paid only the $30/$50 copays, and I didn’t even have an HSA account, so it couldn’t have been the HDHP. Maybe a current S&C associate can chime in to let us know what the current arrangement is and/or confirm/correct my info? My info is at a few years old.

[Anonymous User]

Sullivan & Cromwell

Not sure how things are now, but when I was there the low deductible PPO plan was free, with a $30 copay for PCP and a $50 copay for specialists. Great coverage and I once had a minor in office surgery done for just a $50 copay.
The HDHP was not free, but I can’t find the cost anymore because I went in house a few years ago. The firm contributes an amount to the HSA. Of course, I’m not aware of anyone who chose the HDHP since we have free PPO.

Sorry for the vague response my memory is not what it used to be now that my age has caught up with me.

Free insurance at biglaw is an amazing perk and a really useful factoid for applicants to know about. That's something like a 10k difference in comp.

I do find the HDHP situ a bit weird, why would the lesser product costs more?

Yeah, I think you have it backwards. Firms heavily subsidize HDHP because they want people off of the PPO plans. My firm doesn’t even offer PPO outside of California. The health insurance is garbage, and it costs like $350/month,

I know it’s weird that the lesser product costs more, and I had the same question as the both of you, but it’s exactly because I found it weird that even today I still remember the low deductible PPO was free. I had also seen doctors multiple times and paid only the $30/$50 copays, and I didn’t even have an HSA account, so it couldn’t have been the HDHP. Maybe a current S&C associate can chime in to let us know what the current arrangement is and/or confirm/correct my info? My info is at a few years old.

Some firms have a POS (point of service), which they like to call a PPO, but it’s not really a PPO. My current firm has that, and advertises it as a PPO, but it’s limited to care in like 3 states. It’s relatively cheap, but it’s useless if I’m away for the weekend or something.