Hiring Bid Experienced Bid: FAA-ATO-19-ATCEXP-60073

Healthcare is a huge expense on the outside. I'm budgeting $6k per year for the Blue Cross plan and associated copays.
4550$ for family plan a year. Co-Pay is for regular visits is $30. You think you or your family will go see someone 50 times in a year? I guess some things could be a little more like specialists are $40 a visit. Now if your including dental and vision it will be over your 6k figure
 
4550$ for family plan a year. Co-Pay is for regular visits is $30. You think you or your family will go see someone 50 times in a year? I guess some things could be a little more like specialists are $40 a visit. Now if your including dental and vision it will be over your 6k figure

My wife has some health stuff going on, nothing crazy, that will require multiple visits and we have 3 kids. I'd rather overestimate. We are also counting on my wife continuing her career. If that's the case, we will have double insurance.
 
TL;DR - expect a lot more being siphoned from your gross pay before you get your net pay unlike the military. For me personally, net pay + Roth TSP contribution is about 62% of my gross pay. That obviously will vary by individual situation, but it's certain that more will come out of your FAA paycheck than military. Probably much more. FAA is still a pretty awesome place to work though. Actually combination of FAA/USAF is a good one. Go Guard/Reserves :)



Some costs and other things for you all to factor in if you haven't (seems like many here have a good handle on much of it though):

base pay = basic pay + locality. Basically the salary which will be shown on your FOL or LES once you start getting that.
pay period in the FAA is every two weeks


Employee Contribution to FERS annuity: 4.9% of base pay

Taxes - Sometimes military pay is exempt. City I was in has a 3% tax on all my FAA pay but exempted all military pay. State taxes were exempted for any duty done outside the state, which is most common. It's relatively easy to avoid or limit state/local taxes in the military; not so much in the civilian sector. All your pay that doesn't come out as a pre-tax deduction will be hit by federal taxes. That's a sticker shock for some not expecting that, although most people do seem to be aware of that big expense when transitioning out of the military.

Union Dues: 1.4% of base pay. Joining is optional but I'd recommend it. The union isn't perfect but they do a lot more good than bad.

Healthcare: This will vary greatly depending on a number of factors, but mostly if you are single or have a family and how healthy you or your family is.

Medicare and Social Security Taxes are more noticeable since more of your pay is subject to them, just like taxes.

Disability Insurance: A group policy like Unum will run about $20-$40 a pay check. Group policies are inherently weak though to make them affordable. That's not a direct slam on NATCA for recommending UNUM, it's just the nature of group policies. Better than nothing but there are more holes in that type of policy than in Swiss cheese. A good individual policy will run you about 5-6% of the amount you want insured annually assuming you are healthy with no pre-existing conditions. Since a federal disability retirement covers 40% of your high three after the first year (60% the first year), you would want an individual policy that covers 60% of your salary if you want the same salary on disability.

Smaller pay raises for now: For 2020 the White House's request is 0% for federal employees. That only leaves the union negotiated pay raise of 1.6%. The proposal for the military pay raise is 3.1%. Average BAH increase for Air Force is proposed at 3.4% (Army 3.2% and Navy/Marines 3.9%), and BAS increase is proposed at 2.4%. Those are only proposals, and things like BAH are an average (some might see less, some might see much more). There's also longevity raises for military every other year until you hit the top of your rank's pay. Military pay raises of late have felt more palpable than FAA, with the exception of jumps like moving up the D scale or transferring to a higher level facility.


On the plus side though, the FAA has several differential pays and more than likely if you want overtime you will get some throughout the year. Your annual pay is all but certain the be higher than what your base pay actually is, and total compensation for the FAA even at low level facilities is still pretty good. A lot of the compensation goes towards the pension, which is obviously very valuable and getting increasingly difficult to find outside of the public sector. Being able to keep healthcare into retirement when you have to retire before being eligible for Medicare is also huge. Government also matches TSP unlike military unless you opted into BRS or came in after it was made mandatory.
 
4550$ for family plan a year. Co-Pay is for regular visits is $30. You think you or your family will go see someone 50 times in a year? I guess some things could be a little more like specialists are $40 a visit. Now if your including dental and vision it will be over your 6k figure
Copay isn’t the only thing you pay on a visit. There are deductibles to meet etc.
 
Man, for those of you who haven’t worked gen av traffic before, prepare to get humbled by a few Cessna’s and a Cherokee. I’m not even kidding. Lol The Mooney is gonna come blow your pattern up!

You gotta get creative and figure out how to fly the plane yourself. A lot of them are trainees. I’m lucky that I’m cutting my teeth a semi busy contract tower.

I look next door at the FAA Level 6 and they are absolutely getting their shit pushed in. Then I look at the military class D I got my first CTO and they’re not doing shiiiitttt. It’s bizarro world.


Hey man I worked at that military facility....
 
So, I'm still waiting for my medical to clear and got a phone call saying my drug test was too diluted so I have to redo it which is kind of annoying.. Hopefully it gets cleared quick enough to get the next sets of lists going out in June! I guess being hydrated is bad for these drug tests lol?
 
Copay isn’t the only thing you pay on a visit. There are deductibles to meet etc.
Negative. If you have a copay, you only pay a copay.

My wife works in the insurance industry and mentioned that Blue Cross is the best option, unless there is a better regional plan. I still plan on shopping around.
A copay is a fixed amount paid by a patient for receiving a particular health care service, with the remaining balance covered by the person's insurance company. A deductible is a fixed amount a patient must pay during a given time period, usually a year, before their health insurance benefits begin to cover the costs. My plan which is family BCBS is 175 a check and we only pay copays. Zero deductible to meet. It’s a super cost efficient health insurance. I think I paid like 150$ for my second child to be born and that’s it. Just had shoulder surgery and paid maybe $200
 
Damn
A copay is a fixed amount paid by a patient for receiving a particular health care service, with the remaining balance covered by the person's insurance company. A deductible is a fixed amount a patient must pay during a given time period, usually a year, before their health insurance benefits begin to cover the costs. My plan which is family BCBS is 175 a check and we only pay copays. Zero deductible to meet. It’s a super cost efficient health insurance. I think I paid like 150$ for my second child to be born and that’s it. Just had shoulder surgery and paid maybe $200


Damn, didn't know BCBS was that reasonable. Last time I checked (2017?) it was like $226 per check. Do you know which BC plan it is? There were two last I looked.
 
A copay is a fixed amount paid by a patient for receiving a particular health care service, with the remaining balance covered by the person's insurance company. A deductible is a fixed amount a patient must pay during a given time period, usually a year, before their health insurance benefits begin to cover the costs. My plan which is family BCBS is 175 a check and we only pay copays. Zero deductible to meet. It’s a super cost efficient health insurance. I think I paid like 150$ for my second child to be born and that’s it. Just had shoulder surgery and paid maybe $200
Say the doctor has to go fishing for roll of quarters that you got stuck in your bum. You'll pay for the copay then for the cost of the nurse getting the roll of quarters out, which you would pay in full until you meet your deductible then after your deductible is met you pay coinsurance for the remaining allowable cost. Thats how a considerable amount of healthcare plans work. Your experience may vary.
 
Say the doctor has to go fishing for roll of quarters that you got stuck in your bum. You'll pay for the copay then for the cost of the nurse getting the roll of quarters out, which you would pay in full until you meet your deductible then after your deductible is met you pay coinsurance for the remaining allowable cost. Thats how a considerable amount of healthcare plans work. Your experience may vary.
You took that example right out of the Plan Brochure didn't you?
 
Say the doctor has to go fishing for roll of quarters that you got stuck in your bum. You'll pay for the copay then for the cost of the nurse getting the roll of quarters out, which you would pay in full until you meet your deductible then after your deductible is met you pay coinsurance for the remaining allowable cost. Thats how a considerable amount of healthcare plans work. Your experience may vary.
Do you currently work for the government and have the BCBS Federal Employee Plan?
 
Damn, didn't know BCBS was that reasonable. Last time I checked (2017?) it was like $226 per check. Do you know which BC plan it is? There were two last I looked.
Yeah I think the basic is around 176 a check and I believe that went down from last year. They now have a standard option, basic option, and I think the name of the last one is Blue basic.
 
Yeah I think the basic is around 176 a check and I believe that went down from last year. They now have a standard option, basic option, and I think the name of the last one is Blue basic.
$177.24 for the basic option which isn’t very basic. It’s awesome insurance. There is no deductible to meet with the basic option. I’m not sure about the other options but for this price it makes no sense not to choose basic.
 
$177.24 for the basic option which isn’t very basic. It’s awesome insurance. There is no deductible to meet with the basic option. I’m not sure about the other options but for this price it makes no sense not to choose basic.
Yep I think it's probably the best bang for buck plans for us especially for families.
 
$177.24 for the basic option which isn’t very basic. It’s awesome insurance. There is no deductible to meet with the basic option. I’m not sure about the other options but for this price it makes no sense not to choose basic.
No, it’s gonna be $7,000 a year and we’ll be paying tons in deductible!!
 
So, I'm still waiting for my medical to clear and got a phone call saying my drug test was too diluted so I have to redo it which is kind of annoying.. Hopefully it gets cleared quick enough to get the next sets of lists going out in June! I guess being hydrated is bad for these drug tests lol?
I had that problem too. Don’t be surprised if they have someone watch you take this one
 
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