Yacht Crew Insurance, Disability, Retirement and more

Yachts with a permanent crew usually have a management company taking care of this, we used to have this; http://bachmanngroup.com/link.html?uri=http://www.bachmannyachts.com

My experience with small business is basic healthcare for one, maybe 50% paid coverage for the rest of the family, zero disability, zero life insurance, 14-30 days combined paid time off/sick leave, zero pension, zero 401k. If Trump reduces corporate taxes and regulation, this might change. Small business these days spend their money on taxes, regulation, insurance of every imaginable type (except policies for the staff) and frivolous lawsuits. There is very little left for the staff.

If health insurance had not become a socialist wealth redistribution scam where people could afford a reasonable policy and didn't have to subsidize others then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I would would still be paying about $300 A month
For health insurance with a reasonable $2000 to $3000 deductible.

Instead I am paying $700 with a $7000 deductible because I have to pay for illegal immigrants, women who think $50 a month for contraception is too much or people who made the wrong decisions. Or old guys who need their viagra... or sl-ts... sorry loose women who think free abortion is a right.

And the **** TV commercials for all kind of medicines

And the cku fing lawyers who run tv ads recruiting clients supposedly hurt by the same drugs advertising in the previous spots.

if we were in a normal non socialist system, I would have no problem paying my own health insurance, just like I pay for car insurance or home/boat insurance.

Why does an employer have to provide heath insurance ... it should be a benefit to attract people, nothing more.

My post was not political. I was just stating that if healthcare costs were not out of control and if some of us were not forced to pay for others, then employer coverage would not be needed.

Simple.

Employer provided benefits are perks, they should not be an entitlement

AMEM!!! If the system was ran right the employer would pay a fair salary and the employee would be responsible to provide their own everything. Not up to politicians to dictate every imaginable vote buying freebie for all.
Sorry, ob if could not resist, wish I could answer your question.

In all the verbiage underneath what I highlighted in red, you didn't explain why Pascal's health insurance went from $300 per month with a $2000-$3000 deductible to $700 per month with a $7000 deductible. What you describe in that verbiage didn't just happen recently and account for Pascal's change in rates, but something else did. What could that change be? Pascal doesn't seem to be the one that's misinformed.

olderboater: Thank you first for the concern you've always demonstrated for not only your own yacht employees, but for the culture as a whole. I think that insurance, disability, and retirement is very rarely considered, because there are so many young people in the industry. We all remember when we were bullet proof and had no horizon's on our time line. Also, insurance is sometimes muddled by the existence of the Jones Act. Many crew people think that the Jones Act is health insurance, whereas the limitations of responsibility on the part of vessel owner is, as I understand it, simply "Maintenance and Cure". Very simply put, it amounts to the vessel owner being responsible for a seaman's room, board, wages, and medical costs until the point of Maximum Medical Improvement. A healed amputation from a line handling accident could be Maximum Medical Improvement.
The obverse of the Jones Act coin is that yacht brokers or insurance brokers seem to never advise yacht owners of their exposure under the Act. I'm not an attorney versed in the fine points of the Jones Act, just pointing out that it exists and is not well understood in this industry. It may be that the provisions of the Act are part of an international agreement where other countries are similarly bound, to speak to your question of Foreign Flags.
In my experience as a Captain, medical insurance tends to be a traveling partner of IRS forms W-2 and, less so, form 1099. In other words, if crew is paid by a business entity, insurance sometimes comes with the salary. Captains and crews with long term single employer tenure are the exception, in this industry. I would estimate turn-over at around two years, and that doesn't provide for an ongoing insurance experience. Ideally, we would like to have insurance and retirement that we can own and control, and then negotiate employer financial participation, rather than the onerous method of joining an employer's policy for the typically temporary period of employment and then dealing with migrating to another plan before the transfer period expires.
As you point out, a business joins an insured pool and the insurance costs are less per person than if an individual purchases it. Maybe a pro in the insurance industry could chime in with a plan that we can all join as a group and not only reduce insurance costs for us all, but make it more accessible to those who don't have it? It would seem to me that we're a pretty low risk group.
Finally, thank you, olderboater, for rebutting what is always the loudest voice in the room. The same voice that enjoys affordable insurance for cars and other property because a large enough group pays to cover his risk exposure, is unwilling to join a medical insurance risk pool because someone else may benefit from his contribution. The other types of insurance are affordable because enough people are required to have the insurance by state DMV laws and lending institutions.
The point that amuses me is that those people who think that they can vote against the medical and welfare costs that are incurred by indigent citizens, end up paying for them, anyway. When, for example, an unemployed, uninsured person goes into a private medical center with appendicitis and has a successful operation without means to pay for it, there are many taxpayer funded programs that pay the medical costs at full tilt retail. It happened to me. Worst case, it ends as a tax deduction for the institution.
So, I seem to recall that there have been insurance professionals on this forum, How about it? Can we form a group?

OB's summary of how health care works in the US and some of the trade-offs of socialized vs. private wasn't an attempt to explain what happened to someone's insurance costs. From where I sit (on the Canadian side of the border), it's a pretty concise, and very balanced summary of the current situation.

More in line with the topic: here in Canada, one option for very small businesses (including self-employed) to control their health care costs is to set up a Personal Health Spending Plan (PHSP). An employer can set up a PHSP and pay into it (and deduct the amount), and then the employees can use that money for any health care (within fairly broad limits). The benefit to the employer (especially if you're self-employed) is that it's fully deductible, whereas normal health care spending has minimums and ratios of what you can claim.

That's a bad explanation, here's the description in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_health_services_plan

Is there anything similar in the US for self-employed individuals?

A friend of mine own this insurance company and he is happy to bind a policy for Yacht crews and Owners.
https://mhginsurance.com/

Say hello from me.

If the "industry" you are talking about is larger charter yachts then the Maritime labor Convention (MLC) covers most of what you ask about.

If you mean the little privately operated recreational boats with part time or non-professional crew then the situation more closely resembles itinerant farm laborers. They get whatever the owner chooses to offer, or not.

In keeping with the political side of things, this is America after all and one is free to starve to death under an overpass if one chooses or has no choice.

I ll tell you why my premiums and deductibles shot up... I am paying for other people insurance. Plain and simple.

Last year, my GF had the exact same bluecross plan but her premium were half of mine because she qualifies for subsidies.

It s a vicious circle... the fewer people can afford insurance, the more uninsured end up at emergency rooms and those costs to hospitals are passed on to the other patients with insurance or who can not afford not to pay their bill

Personally I don't mind the high deductibles. I feel insurance is for important stuff and I ve always selected the highest possible deductible whether for health, car or boat insurance. But i expect the premium to reflect that choice.

As to the European system mentioned earlier in the thread, it has been 30 years since I left France. Back then, and from what I hear the model is still the same or worst..."securite sociable", which is not retirement but government run health insurance, is funded by payroll taxes to the to the tume of 20% if you memory is right. And I doubt it went down... so basically the more money you make, the more your employer pays. Fair? Certainly not. This also explains why the unemployment rate has always been much higher has employers payroll taxes are too high

The problem we have here is that so far no effort has been made to lower the costs. The so called Affordable Care Act had no provision to make health care affordable. Sadly I don't see anything yet in the new bill passed my the house which will reduce costs although hopefully some cost reductions will be implemented thru regulations

I rarely go to a doctors office... maybe every couple of years. Last time I went was in June to get stitches on a 3" cut I got on my foot as a result of an encounter with a hose clamp in the ET. I was shocked to see how many non medical staff was buzzing around the back office Equally expensive each exam room was outfitted with a large touch screen with speech recognition so the doctor could dictate detailed pages of notes... just to cover his behind... fear of lawsuits.

We pay for all this. And more. All the waste... all the fraud... here in Miami you have thousands of minivans shuttling senior citizens to medical offices where they are over tested and over prescribed.

And the list goes on.

Exactly... government run programs are usually much more costly. Look at the Veterans Administration here in the US is you want a taste of government run healthcare.

Indeed same with education. School choice is a big topic nowadays with big government fans freaking out over it but the fact is that privately run charter school do a better job for 30% less.

There should be a safety net for those who can't afford healthcare or who have serious medical issues but not going over board like covering viagra, sex change treatment or even contraception.