Part time employers with health care?

[Yarnstormer]

There used to be employers that offered health insurance for part time workers. I believe it was quite limited. Did the health insurance reform do away with that?
I seem to recall kohls, home depot and hobby lobby made the list...


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[HF63]

I believe that Starbucks also offers heath care to all employees part time or not!

 

[pb4uski]

Where I worked one was eligible for health insurance benefits if you worked 20 hours a week or more.

 

[SteveNU]

My son works for UPS part time 20 hours a week and has health insurance fully paid for.

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[scrabbler1]

Where I worked one was eligible for health insurance benefits if you worked 20 hours a week or more.

Same for me when I was working part-time. I had to pay 50% of the premiums instead of 25% when I worked full-time. But when I reduced my weekly hours worked from 20 to 12, I became ineligible for the plan. I offered to pay 100% of the premiums but they balked. I thought it was a no-brainer for them to allow me to remain in the plan under that deal, but I was wrong.

 

[MildlyEccentric]

Same for me when I was working part-time. I had to pay 50% of the premiums instead of 25% when I worked full-time. But when I reduced my weekly hours worked from 20 to 12, I became ineligible for the plan. I offered to pay 100% of the premiums but they balked. I thought it was a no-brainer for them to allow me to remain in the plan under that deal, but I was wrong.

I would have thought you would be eligible for COBRA as a reduction in hours is a qualifying event. Perhaps your company was too small to fall under COBRA rules.

 

[scrabbler1]

I would have thought you would be eligible for COBRA as a reduction in hours is a qualifying event. Perhaps your company was too small to fall under COBRA rules.

I was eligible for COBRA and switched to it and stayed on it for 18 months. But when I asked to pay 100% of the group plan's premiums or to have my company allow me to remain on COBRA longer (which in effect would be the same thing), my requests for both were rejected. I actually left the company and ERed before COBRA had expired although I knew months earlier that once COBRA expired I would be on my own, and I did not want to keep working AND have to buy my own individual HI policy.

 

[ziggy29]

A little over three years ago I started working for the USPS as a clerk in a tiny little post office one morning a week, just for something to do. One thing accidentally led to another, and early last year I wound up being converted into a part-time career position. It's about 20-25 hours a week, but as a career position it receives full medical benefits (not prorated for hours worked - same as the full-timers get) for which I pay about $50 a month out of my paychecks for "self plus one" coverage.

Not a bad deal at all, even if it's a little more than I'd like to be working in a semi-retirement - and with what's happening to Marketplace coverage through ACA, I think I'd better hold onto it. Heck, if I can make it until April 2025 I'll be able to fully retire with full retiree medical coverage (I'd be 59 then), so we'll see. Yeah, it's w*rk, but this is a pretty sweet deal.

 

[Yarnstormer]

Wow I'd love a part time job like your post office gig!


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[nubill]

I worked for the Federal Government part time from age 55 to 62. DW and I were covered by Fed Employee's BC/BS. If you work there at least 5 years and are age 62 years old you can retire and get retiree's coverage. We currently have the same insurance now and the cost is less (BC/BS basic $355.76 per month)

 

[RetireAge50]

In King County Wa you can drive the metro bus part time and get full medical benefits. They also pay you to get your commercial driving training/license.

 

[ziggy29]

Wow I'd love a part time job like your post office gig!

It was a pure accident -- I never even intended (or really wanted) it to turn into more hours and more work. I just happened to be in situations where it fell into my lap without even seeking it or applying for it. You usually have to be hired into a non-career position for a while before being "converted" into a career position but for me it happened very quickly.

Like I said, more hours than I would ideally work, but it's awfully hard to complain about excellent, almost no-cost health insurance from a job where I average maybe 22 hours a week. DW is our primary breadwinner now, but now that I get this employer coverage for both of us she was able to negotiate "more bread" in exchange for waiving her own contractual employer coverage. She gets an extra $X per month, her employer saves nearly $2X per month, so everyone wins.

I worked for the Federal Government part time from age 55 to 62. DW and I were covered by Fed Employee's BC/BS. If you work there at least 5 years and are age 62 years old you can retire and get retiree's coverage. We currently have the same insurance now and the cost is less (BC/BS basic $355.76 per month)

Yep. There's also the "MRA + 10" immediate retirement which means at least 10 years of service *and* at least the minimum retirement age (MRA, which varies by your date of birth). For me the MRA is about 57, but I wouldn't have 10 years of creditable career service until I am 59 (the same month I turn 59 1/2, coincidentally), so that's the age when I could take immediate retirement with health coverage. Such early retirement would shrink my annuity (pension) by about 15%, but a FERS pension for 10 years of part-time work would be so small that it doesn't even move the needle. The retiree health insurance is the pot of gold there; whatever is left from the FERS annuity would be a few coppers in comparison.

 

[Walt34]

A few years ago we talked with a lady at Home Depot who was happy to have a job mixing paint for 20 hours a week and had medical coverage. She was a single mom and they adjusted her hours so she could deal with the child care issues. I don't know if they still offer the medical coverage for part timers.