<prompt> Human: Hello,My employer told me today that they are going to begin offering employees a choice between 100 employer paid health insurance, and if you waive coverage, they will instead pay out the monthly cost of that premium to the employee on the first check of the month. Effectively you can elect to have 5868.96 extra gross pay per year or to have the employer offer health insurance at 0.00 cost.I currently make 45,000.00 per year salary. If I were to take the extra pay instead of health insurance I would be a little over 50k salary wise.Ive been with my company for 2 years now, and have had the health insurance the entire time. Ive been to the doctor once. I dont get sick much, so Im leaning towards taking the cash payout..Any reasons why I shouldnt?  <response>: You need to have health insurance. If you want to shop on your own, that is fine. But be aware that a less expensive plan will offer less coverage if something happens. Also, employer paid premiums are not included in most taxes. Youll end up paying payroll taxes, statefederal income taxes on that money. So your take home will be less than that, then youll still have to spend a decent amount of that on insurance that will likely cover less. 