But what I was trying to say that covered services can change from year to year. What was covered last year, may not be this year. In an effort to cap rising health care costs, a lot of firms cut back on what is covered instead of raising premiums.

In 2003 I had surgery. Our total out of pocket for everything, surgery, hospital stay and rehab was about $275. I need to have a similar surgery this year and our total out of pocket is going to be about $1000 this time. Why, because now we have a $250 surgical co-pay, a $100 per day hospital stay co-pay for the first 5 days and the PT co-pay went from $15 each to $25. However, my husband's union still does not require a weekly contribution to the health care plan. I do, however, expect that to change in the future.