[speaker001:] hi Ed
[speaker002:] hello Carolyn
[speaker001:] do you uh work for a large organization
[speaker002:] yes I work for North Carolina State University which has about six or seven thousand employees
[speaker001:] wow what do you do are you
[speaker002:] I'm an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering and computer science
[speaker001:] I see
[speaker002:] and you work for TI
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and you do
[speaker001:] I'm a computer scientist
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and always concerned about benefits
[speaker002:] right well I I'm on the benefits committee here one of about twenty people in the university so that's why I checked that topic
[speaker001:] oh you are I see uh what do you think people's concern is about benefits is it mostly in the area of health care
[speaker002:] I swear that's what I was going to say we seem to get more more uh complaints about that than about anything else although you get a good deal of complaints over other kinds of insurance too um  yeah health care we have we are on the state health system which is my understanding is that it is a lot worse than the system we had when we had our own just for the university and I wouldn't be real surprised if that's the case um  uh yeah they people are uh complaining because the rates for families uh what you know the the uh  uh the additional amount you have to pay to cover a family has gone up quite rapidly
[speaker001:] oh yeah yeah well we've our benefits have changed recently to where we have network doctors and network hospitals kind of uh a preferred provider
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and the you wouldn't believe the complaints
[speaker002:] huh
[speaker001:] because you know you're family doctor may not happen to be in the network
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and uh so there uh you your benefits are reduced if you don't go to a network doctor
[speaker002:] well do you yeah but I mean do people get to choose whether to take the the preferred preferred provider or not
[speaker001:] that's right that's right you get to choose whether or not you want to change doctors
[speaker002:] huh right but so so so people would stay in an existing plan that that didn't require you to go to a preferred provider in that case right
[speaker001:] no no the the plan allows you to do either one the benefits that are paid are considerably better when uh
[speaker002:] with the preferred provider
[speaker001:] we are with the preferred provider yes
[speaker002:] huh wonder about the economics of that uh the uh you know twenty years ago when HMO's just got started uh when they started enrolling a lot of people uh it was felt that this would be the way to control health care costs and it worked to some degree but it didn't work that much and the reason was adverse selection the people that go into HMO's are are those that have uh you know that that have generally lesser health needs and I mean it's obvious why that is because the people that that that are already sick are going to see a particular doctor and they don't want to switch just to come in the HMO so you get the people in the H O they they don't uh you know require that much uh care at all and then some how you got less people paying premiums into the into the uh insurance system than you have uh uh you you have almost as many claims so uh that's that's caused a problem uh
[speaker001:] have you heard about uh cafeteria the cafeteria plan of benefits
[speaker002:] yes uh I don't think we have a very good cafeteria being a university industry tends to have a lot better programs
[speaker001:] well I don't know I I would I'd be interested in seeing in learning more about that because
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh I have no children so I am not interested really in child care benefits except I suppose as a citizen of the world or something
[speaker002:] uh-huh right well I I don't know I mean the questions is should should it be the employer that pays for child care uh if if there were a tax credit then everybody would get it regardless who they worked for and you you would also be better in the sense that that people who had only one income in the family would get as much as people who had two and you would sort of think that the people who have one income kind of need it more
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I just I I like the concept of being able to choose which benefits are more important to you
[speaker002:] so oh yes no that that that it's true that's that's important I agree uh yeah that's true and child care is one of the big ones that that gets thrown in um
[speaker001:] well you know if you were married to a doctor then you might not need so much
[speaker002:] medical care
[speaker001:] medical insurance or something I don't know
[speaker002:] I don't know about that you'd have you'd you'd have your office visits covered but that's only a small part of the total
[speaker001:] yeah I'm sure but
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] uh on the other hand you know maybe maybe if you had false teeth you wouldn't care about dental insurance
[speaker002:] uh well I think you probably would need more denture work wouldn't you now I don't care too much about dental work because of of their dental the dental insurance because I rarely well almost never for the last eight years have I used up enough to
[speaker001:] would you I don't know
[speaker002:] uh you know paid enough in in dental bills to uh come up to even the smallest amount you can set aside monthly uh but not everybody is like that and people who have kids that need uh you know an orthodontist services certainly would not be in that situation
[speaker001:] yeah that's right but that you know people like