If you are spending student loan money to pay credit cards, you need to seriously consider filing bankruptcy.
Starbucks is well-known for this; there’s quite a lot of people who only work a few hours a week for Starbucks, taking home no pay, and doing it entirely for the benefits package. I don’t like Starbucks coffee, but they do seem to treat their employees better than average for retail.
I would suggest, as others have done, that it might be irresponsible of your husband to go back to college right at this moment, considering that it puts your health insurance in peril. I also agree with others that you must not go without health insurance.
It is my understanding that insurance companies are no longer allowed to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions if you have an unbroken history of having had health insurance coverage. (Another reason to not go without.) Of course they can charge a huge premium for your policy, and they will. People with asthma are probably more prone to develping various other conditions, and the insurance company will cover its own ass when figuring premiums.
It sounds like it’s just not the right time for your husband to go back to school, at least full time. That doesn’t mean he can’t continue his education in an informal way or take correspondence or night courses, etc. Is he open to waiting a while longer, until it makes financial sense?
Starbucks is a good idea. I propose that to him.
Kelly M, can you explain why filing for bankruptcy is a better long-term plan than swapping out our credit card debts for 6% student loans? Especially in light of the fact that, once I graduate in a year and a half, our income will likely go to $70K a year, if not more, on my salary alone?
ppst, Sprokets, check out post #16
I said that you should seriously consider it, not that you should. Since you are “maxed out on student loans”, it sounds like that strategy (which isn’t terribly bad, but is certainly not your best long-term financial choice) may not be sufficient to deal with your situation, especially if you have a later adverse turn. Note also that those student loans are nondischargeable in bankruptcy, so you’ve converted dischargeable debt into nondischargeable debt, which might end up biting you later, especially if you don’t land your expected job, or if some other calamity befalls you before, or after, you graduate.
I’m kinda curious what industry you’re in that you think you’ll leave college and immediately land a $70K/year position, without prior experience. You may be laboring under unreasonable expectations here.
I think that Sprocketstypo is right in saying that it’s just not the right time for this change of course in your lives; to me you do not appear to have financial reserves adequate for the risks inherent in the course you are contemplating.
There is AIGA, but even though it is a large group, they don’t have enough people in any one state to be able to negiotiate discounts. You could check with their third-party partner. A student membership in AIGA is only $75 a year.
Also, in the Starbucks vein, I used to have a part time job with a company called RGIS - they do inventories for retail stores. It’s part time, they offer health insurance after 90 days’ employment and the schedule is flexible so you can work around either classes or a full-time job. If you can count and use a calculator, you can get a RGIS job, and the pay is not bad for the type of job it is. The branch I worked for did inventories for the Navy Exchange, so one week a year they flew people to Iceland to inventory the Exchange in Keflavik, so it was a working vacation for them.
I agree with several others here that a better long-term strategy might involve him continuing his current job until you are out of college and employed full-time.
Regardless, health insurance companies will not see him as healthy and the asthma will be considered a pre-existing condition. How much that might affect his ability to get insurance and/or affordable insurance varies considerably, but trust me, this will be an issue.
“Technically” COBRA is not a California program. It’s a Federal government thing.
Really? My COBRA payment was $875 a month. Totally unmanageable for two people where one is disabled and the other unemployed, who are attempting to pay the bills solely on unemployment benefits. I don’t want to minimize the distress you are under, but you are not in the worst possible situation.
As I said, to YOU those health issues are minor. To an insurance company they are Big Red Flags.
Which is yet another reason he should stick it out another 18 months to two years in his current job.
If he is employed by a company of 2-19 employees, then it would be Cal-Cobra which is a state program. A company of 20 or more employees would be under the Federal Cobra.
Fair enough. I’m a veterinary student with an interest in poultry medicine. The chatter on the vet sites is that $50K plus a percentage of earnings and benefits is not unreasonable for new graduates in small animal practice. Poultry vets are in demand currently, and earnings for poultry vets have a long reputation of being high paying within the veterinary field. $70K is on the high end, I admit, but it’s not exceptionally crazy. Especially when combined with my current plans of covering emergency services and relief work.
Starbucks is looking better and better.
Broomstick, I am aware that his health problems are the major hurdle. And I realize that our situation could be worse. This isn’t a gnashing of teeth, my life sucks worse than yours thread.
Also, since this keeps coming up: he has already left his job and started school. And his previous employer has already filled his position and has no need for duplicate staff. Hell, that store is probably going to go under in the next year anyhow. It has major management issues. The kind that make a person want to quit.
AIGA looks like a good idea, even without the insurance. Thanks, Romansperson.
My apologies if it came across that way, it was not my intention, and the only excuse I can offer is that I, too, am frustrated about the situation I’m in.
I did miss that he had already left his job. >sigh<
Shop around for the best deal you can find is what I’d suggest. Unfortunately for us, we have no choice at this point but to go bare. I wish you better luck
Your expectations may well be quite reasonable; veterinarians have long been the highest-paid profession in the United States and there are often shortages in this field, especially in the large-animal and poultry divisions. Back when I had cats, my vet took a lot of small-animal cases for free because he made so much money on his large-animal practice (mainly horse owners) that he simply didn’t need the fees for the small animals.
A recent example of hospital costs: Typo Knig had sinus surgery last fall. Endoscopic sinus surgery, turbinates trimmed, deviated septum corrected.
Our out of pocket cost was 2,000 when all was said and done. That was painful.
The billed amount from the providers - for something like 90 minutes of surgery - was something over 40,000. The hospital charge was something like 22,000; the surgeon’s fee was like 18,000 and there were miscellaneous other charges from X-ray and anesthesia that were a few thousand dollars.
Now - those amounts are clearly fictional. Our insurer pegged the allowed cost at something less than 10,000 for everything. Which is mad enough for 2 hours of medical care anyway, but is still quite large. I think, honestly, the hospital and surgeon jacked up their fees to an insane figure knowing they would realize only a fraction of the cost, and figuring it didn’t matter what they said the charges were.
BUT - if we didn’t have health insurance with “negotiated rates”, I’d bet a year’s rent they’d try to collect the full 40,000-plus.
This actually really pisses me off. Instead of listing fees that are something realistically close to what they’d expect to receive even if it means a small writeoff, they quadruple (or more) the supposed fee. That was, frankly, NOT a 40,000 dollar procedure.
Suck. Sorry 
I’ll post back if I find anything.
Mama Zappa, I totally see where you are coming from, but don’t be so quick to accuse the doctors and hospital of artificial price inflation. Even in veterinary medicine, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that contribute to the cost of treatment. Cleaning an endoscope machine takes about 20 minutes of a trained person’s time, in addition to using special made chemicals and equipment. 90 minutes of general anesthesia takes the full time attention of at least one person, in addition to about 4 separate machines, all of which have to be cleaned afterwards. Washing the surgery tools, re-sterilizing them. Then we get into the cost of using a highly trained doctor plus her exceedingly expensive malpractice insurance (the value, necessity, and cost of which is a whole other rant).
The prices are high, but they aren’t entirely fictional is all. The whole system needs reworking.
Pullet, can I ask
- what county are you in
- how old is your husband?
Yolo County, California (that plus the info on my vocation and the timing of my graduation essentially pinpoints who I am. Oh well. I’m not afraid!)
He’s 34.
No one has kids. No especial history of anything medical in our families.
I just went looking for Blue Cross’s rates for individual insurance. There are many options. I just put in a random Yolo Cty. zip code for your putative zip code.
http://isg.bluecrossca.com/Rates/indrates.asp
If you stay away from the HMOs and go with a PPO, you can get a pretty reasonable rate. You’ll have to decide (among other things) how big of a deductible you’re comfortable carrying in case of major expenses.
Here’s their main web site: http://www.bluecrossca.com/
I’d go through the application process, if I were you.
- toadspittle, who’s been carrying individual health insurance like this for four years now
Thanks, toadspittle, I’ll give Blue Cross a try. We’ve already tried with Blue Shield and Tonik, who both initially quoted us quite reasonable rates, and then refused coverage entirely once they had a chance to review his application.
On the one hand, I probably won’t find anything unless I cast about. But on the other hand, the more forms I fill out, the more I’m paranoid that they’ll dig up some typo and reverse our coverage just as the husband needs a bladder stone removed.
Urg. Bummer. Then you may be in the same boat with BC.
Have you checked with the university health center to see if they have any informative programs on getting health insurance for the spouses and dependents of graduate students? As I’m sure you know, the UC system doesn’t provide or endorse any plans, but our health center here provides workshops and counseling on the topic. Maybe yours could help give you some advice?