I wanted a role that was less stress and less work so I could actually find time to enjoy other things in life besides work and save for an early retirement but the job market has been more challenging than expected. I ended up taking a contractor role at a large tech company through an agency (they provide my pay and benefits) and today for the first time I'm attempting to use the benefits and was surprised at how bad they are. The agency I work for is huge. They employ probably over 100k contractors so I assume they would get DECENT prices for benefits.
So I enrolled in their benefits plan for 2023 and used it for the first time today. I went to the dentist for an emergency appointment and found out they're “out of network” so I have to pay for it. So I looked up my benefits and it turns out there are only about 5 “in network” dentist options and none of them are very good and that's in a large city. I also found out my health care deductible is almost $1800 which seems high. There are so many companies where contractors so the same work as FT employees but get crappy benefits as if we're second class citizens.
Now I feel like I have to start looking for a regular 9-5 stressful job again just so I have decent benefits. Anyone else feel this way?