COBRA isn’t restricted to HMOs. It is a continuation of health benefits after separation from a prior employer. Many folks have never been involved with an HMO. Group medical plans are a “buy in bulk” arrangement and generally provide savings to both employers and employees, but going on COBRA means that you’re no longer employed by that employer and must bear their prior portion of the cost (plus some).
If I sell bagels (I really want a bagel right now), I’m going to give you a better deal for a dozen than I will for a single delicious sour dough delight with onion and garlic.
My brother’s wife is a cancer survivor and was denied coverage because she hadn’t been cancer free for 10 years (I believe it was 10, could have been 8). Anyway, she stayed on Cobra which was very expensive. It meant that they had to really cut back and they are not wealthy people, there wasn’t a lot of fat in their budget anyway.
ETA: I believe her COBRA payment was $1,800 a month.
In addition to the cost, I experienced the following:
The COBRA bills were collected by a third (actually fourth, I guess it would be) party. Who added their own maximum-allowable-under-the-law administrative fee to the COBRA payment.
Said fee was apparently not enough to fund them to send bills, much less payment envelopes or other reminders. The bill had to be payed by a set day each month, with specific information on the check, or my coverage would be terminated. No grace period. No notice until after the fact. In short, it was a scheme designed to make it more expensive to keep the COBRA coverage, with plenty of extra ways to trip you up and terminate the coverage.
I have to admit, the prices Im seeing that you guys are paying or have paid for COBRA are insane.
I switched companies and I am not entitled to the new companies insurance yet. I am a 23 year old female with a SLEW of medical problems.
I am only paying 170 a month for COBRA coverage- which comes out to be less than what I was paying while still with the company. (Almost $65 a week) and I have the same coverage through Aetna.
Ive even undergone surgery while being on COBRA- and the bills after my coverage come out to about 1100 instead of close to 35k.
Of course, those bills are thrown into the stock pile of other medical bills I have…over 20k. Bankruptcy is calling my name…:smack:
You’re almost certainly covered by the COBRA subsidy that was enacted after Pres. Obama came into office. If so, the feds are picking up 65% of your bill, and you are paying 35%. Without the subsidy, your COBRA premium would be about $485 a month. Here’s more info if you’re interested: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fsCOBRApremiumreduction.html
Im not so sure about that.Reading that website is showing that to receive that kind of deduction, I would have to fall into their “assistance eligible individuals”, which from what I read, meant that I would have to be involuntary terminated.
I left- I was working for Hell Depot and couldn’t put up with their bureaucratic bs anymore. I found another job and gave my notice. The day after I gave my notice, my supervisor tried to act as if I was not on permanent light duty (following my 3rd major knee surgery) and was throwing me into Seasonal during the holidays. I had never been on the floor as an associate and was in too much pain to deal with it. So I clocked out for lunch and never went back.
Maybe it varies state to state. There also must be some specific exceptions.
A few years back, I was laid off while my wife was 3 months pregnant. She was able to get Medicaid more or less summarily (IIRC, a form was mailed to our home). No real hoops to jump through, no visiting a bunch of offices – her old covered-by-insurance OBGYN even set her up with a new Medicaid-covered OBGYN.
After my son was born, his healthcare was gratis (to us) for a few months. I got insurance again right about then … but even today, after four years, we get things in the mail from Medicaid (immunization reminders and such).
Could be that you’re getting it even though you might not be strictly eligible. The big tip off is that you’re paying less on COBRA than you were when you still had that job.
At the risk of using an absolute, no one pays less on COBRA than they did on the job (unless they are getting the federal subsidy). Generally your employer pays a chunk of your health insurance bill when you are employed, and then when you go on COBRA you pay the whole thing plus an administration fee.
Gotcha. I actually thought COBRA would be a lot more than what Im paying and even though its still expensive for me (living in NY-everything is expensive) Im able to keep coverage.
If you are paying less for COBRA than your employee share of health insurance when you were employed, someone is paying part of the freight, full stop. COBRA is always more unless your employer covered absolutely none of the cost of insurance. This, as I understand it, is quite rare – employers bitch, but they love to pay health insurance (tax-subsidized) because it allows them to cut wages (which aren’t tax advantaged) and still be competitive in the labor market.
The issue Magiver is confused about has nothing to do with waiting periods but rather pre-existing conditions. Health insurance on the individual market doesn’t have to insure people with preexisting conditions, and in general they don’t. But if you’re in a group plan they have to sell you insurance if you belong to the group. However, they don’t have to cover your preexisting conditions – unless those conditions have been covered by some insurance for, I think, the previous six months. So if you lose coverage for some period of time, then your next insurer can deny you coverage on current medications and treatments.
Note that this all becomes less important in 2014, when the Affordable Care Act will require insurance companies to provide competitive insurance for individuals regardless of preexisting conditions.
Prior to going on COBRA- I was looking for coverage for myself elsewhere(since I had heard so many bad things about it and had every intention of leaving my job) and it was impossible to find something affordable. As I said, I am one of those lucky ones with pre-existing conditions, and COBRA was the only insurance I could afford.
The rising cost of medical bills in general has made me seriously contemplate moving to and applying for citizenship in Canada.
