When you get your W-2, look at box 14, many companies list the amount of health care benefits there. Also Compare the amount in box 2 (your wages for social security purposes) and the amount shown as ytd wages on your last paycheck stub. If your health care was pre-tax, the amount in box 2 will be LESS than the YTD wages on the paycheck.

Boston–Pre-tax health care lowers your social security earnings. This *will* ultimately reduce the monthly payment one receives from SSA. It *may* also affect how pension payments are paid out. I happen to be a devout saver–anything I don’t pay as taxes now, I save. My savings should be enough to compensate for any loss in benefits.

The quick estimator at the SSA web site (plugging in $40,000 and 41,500 as the annual income with pre and post tax dollars) shows about a $30 difference in monthly benefits.
At the 15% tax bracket, someone would pay $20/month more in tax now.

If FERS uses the $40,000 number for retirement (assuming 20 years government service) , that would be another $25 a month as well.

As a side note, officer health insurance cannot be directly deducted by an S corporation for more than 2% owners. There is a convoluted method used to get the deduction, but again you would not qualify.

Nearly all healthcare insurance through a job are part of a Section 125 plan and are deducted pre-tax. You generally have the option to pay them with tax paid dollars but I’m at a loss to explain how that could be beneficial to anyone.

It’s the cost of health care that drives insurance rates up, and it is the high cost of insurance that makes coverage less available.

If the cost of healthcare goes down, the cost of health insurance will go down, and more companies will be able to afford to offer Health insurance to their employees.

I can see 2 scenarios happening here –

1) They just didn’t get the info. When you sent it in, did you include something referencing you as a dependent on your mom’s policy? If the document only had your name on it, they may not have been able to identify what policy it went with and thus weren’t able to process it correctly. (Note to everyone – include the policy ID number and the name of the insured individual on ANY documents you send to your insurance company. It will be extremely helpful in making sure your document is processed correctly.)

2) Is the school you’re attending accredited? Sometimes there’s a clause that you have to be attending an accredited university, so if a person were attending a technical school, beauty school, etc. full time it wouldn’t count.

I suspect in your case that #1 occurred, and you should be able to get this resolved on Monday.

Also, you can make the call yourself – anyone on a medical policy can make calls and discuss their own information, it doesn’t only have to be the cardholder. (Sure, if you had never been on the policy at all, your mom would have to make the call. But you can call to discuss your own personal information, which includes full time student documentation.)

Then should people be making money off of food ?

Should people be making money off of housing ?

Aren’t they more important than health care?

Americans pay for thier own food and housing, so why not make americans pay for thier own health care?

There was a system which I saw proposed in California where smaller clinics would be opened up in strip malls and community centers. Staffed by Nurse practitioners and Physicians assistants and working in consort with doctors, they would be allowed to take care of simple illnesses and injuries that clog the emergency rooms now. The cost savings alone would more than make up for the initial cash outlay to start the clinics up.