[speaker001:] uh actually it turns out to be an interesting topic because I'm now in the middle of a job search graduating here and realizing that one of the things that's not really well represented in benefits often is flexibility because my wife will have some set of benefits where ever she's working and the ability to mix and match in a useful way particularly with things like medical and dental it's something that I've been uh looking for
[speaker002:] that's true one of the really disturbing things for me is uh is the way that the government mandates that all insurance policies include particular benefits uh even though you could you might never have any need for them uh here in Georgia they just passed a law for example that every health insurance policy must include coverage for mammograms and pap smears doesn't matter that you're single and male you still have coverage for mammograms and pap smears and uh it's that kind of thing that uh uh that bothers me
[speaker001:] that's amusing yeah yeah I think we have a similar thing in California and I think that at the moment you can't issue health insurance that doesn't have coverage for substance abuse and certain other mental health issues and
[speaker002:] uh drug treatment yeah drug treatment and alcohol and yeah that's the same thing here even if you're
[speaker001:] and the result is a lot of people won't provide it at all or over charge
[speaker002:] even if you're a Mormon you still have to have uh coverage for smoking recovery you know
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh but but in general your idea about flexibility I think is a very good one because uh uh if you if you have a a full gamut of of coverages um uh uh there might there might be a lot of things that the company is willing willing to pay for but that you're simply not interested in and what you rather prefer to do is say
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] don't get some of those programs but shuffle the money over to another place to lower your deductibles or something
[speaker001:] the other things they do seem to be willing to spend money in strange ways for instance I know where my wife works she can get for something like five or ten dollars a month sole health insurance but
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] it would cost her an additional sixty or seventy a month to include me on that policy well assuming that we both work at places that feel this way we may very well miss out on the convenience of going to the same place because those two places will never get together and agree okay one of them will pay for all of the uh the dental and optical and the other one'll pay for the medical
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] instead it's it's very much designed towards self only insurance I don't know if all employers are that way but a lot of them I have seen are
[speaker002:] yeah I think that uh a a lot of them are that way they uh they they deal they deal with coordination of benefits and and no no particular illness who's the primary carrer and who's the secondary carrier but um uh everyone tries to be the secondary carrier and it's very difficult to to get it worked out uh I know at at Hayes uh
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] the coverage for the employee is is completely paid by the company and to get your entire family covered is thirty eight dollars a month
[speaker001:] well that's pretty good
[speaker002:] it is I'm very pleased uh I think uh very pleased with the benefit package that we have that has uh uh a dental check ups are completely covered um there's a lot of particular things in the medical package that are covered from the first dollar particularly if you chose low cost alternatives like out patient treatment rather than inpatient and uh things like that um they have good educational benefits if you want to uh try to improve your uh you know go work further on a degree or or get a master's degree of something uh uh course
[speaker001:] that's something this university at at least the graduate student negotiated plan was very bad about this idea of low cost alternatives
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I know in one case there were doctors around who were affiliated with the university who you can go see and all your lab work is covered under their research so in fact you're saving them you know hundreds of dollars in in billings by going to a research uh physician yet at the same time they will only pay based on eighty percent of the customary reasonable charges for the physicians visits and won't take into account the fact that by seeing that doctor you're saving them you know a couple of hundred dollars over going to somebody else and a lot of things like that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um one thing I was wondering is something I've noticed that that they don't publicize much but a lot of companies in particularly organizations school and government organizations have is legal uh services of some sort
[speaker002:] yeah we don't have that either
[speaker001:] hm
[speaker002:] uh in in some ways I think it's it would be very good thing uh you know to be able to get your wills done and
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and uh advice just by picking up the phone or without having to actually uh you know pay somebody extra