You maggot-brained, ass-thumbing, cum rag boss.

The BBQ Pit
1

For Four years, the husband tried to salvage your business. Tried to stop you from throwing money away on bad equipment, chasing after worthless clients, and stomping on what few good clients you had. Last January, it was clear you would never change your ways, so the husband said “Good bye and Good luck” and went off to finish his degree.

The little college the husband picked is awesome for his field of study, near to home, and affordable, but it doesn’t have a student health center and, by extension, does not offer health coverage.

Being a student myself (my school is big enough to offer nominal insurance for me only), the husband and I elected to continue the husband’s group coverage under the COBRA program, even though paying for it ate 15% of our monthly income. I would be done with school in about a year and could then land a job with insurance for both of us.

It came as no surprise when, 6 months after the husband left, we saw your sad little shop all boarded up. The landlord had locked you out for failure to pay the rent, the repo men had come for all the equipment you had leased, the franchise was sueing you for failure of contract. You have a few good qualities, Maggot-Brain Owner, but running a business is not one of them. We were sad to think that you had likely lost the house you refinanced when the business turned sour and that you were probably living in your daughter’s garage. But, no particular skin off our teeth.

But now, now you’ve graduated into being a full Maggot-brained Cum rag. See, because you spent more time tweasing your ass hairs instead of listening to sound advice, you went bankrupt. And, because you went bankrupt, the insurance plan that the Husband and I were paying for with 15% of our blood every month has now been retroactively cancelled. RETROACTIVELY, you pompus gas bag. Because retroactively goes all the way to 3 months ago, we now can’t apply for ANY new insurance plan without the Husband’s minor health issues counting as pre-existing conditions. 11 months out of the year, the Husband is healthier than a horse, but, every year, he gets a cold that requires a doctor’s visit. So, now that it’s been more than 60 days without real health insurance coverage, that sole doctor’s visit is going to prevent us from getting coverage for anything less than 20 or 30% of our monthly income.

And, while we frantically search for new coverage, the Husband is completely vulerable. If he gets into a car accident while trying to sort out this mess, he’ll be fucked.

Let me say that slowly: By being a crusted, gooey centered, parasite infested piece of smegma, you have put my husband’s health and our economic future in serious, real jeopary.

Fuck you.

And a similar fuck you to a company who takes 3 months to figure out their books.

2

Ugh, how horrible. COBRA makes no provision for bankruptcy of the employer?

3

COBRA is tied to the employer’s healthcare plan. If they change companies, cobra enrollees change to the new company, for example.

The rule is that you are no longer eligible for COBRA if your employer ceases to maintain any group health coverage. (This is in regards to Federal COBRA, which covers employers with 20 or more employees. State COBRA rules for smaller companies may be different)

4

From the Department of Labor FAQ’s on COBRA.

Not that it doesn’t suck, because it does.

5

That sucks. Since you were cancelled retroactively, are they refunding the three months premiums you paid?

6

Are you eligible for your state’s version of Medicaid? Depending on how much you earn, you may either have to pay a negligible amount, or maybe even pay nothing.

It helped my family out when we were having a rough time and had jobs that didn’t offer insurance.

7

I was just wondering the same thing. Of course I would assume they would have to and I guess the OP can throw it in an account somewhere as a little money to pay medical costs.

8

We have to call the COBRA company back tomorrow, because their billing department is only open so many days a week, to see about getting a refund. They didn’t even acknowledge that we deserved on until we asked. But, at least they agree that we need one. Now, it’s mostly a matter of how quickly it will be returned.

Looks like we are not eligible for California’s Medicaid. The Husband is neither broken enough, nor young enough, and we don’t have kids.

I really fucking hate being punished over someone else’s mistake. About the only thing I misunderstood was the precise nature of COBRA. Boo. Booooo.

:(:(:frowning:

9

The irony is that COBRA, while nto a bad idea, doesn’t work vry well in rpactice. This is the one kind of mass, group health plan I wouldn’t mind the giv running. Since fired/laid-off/quit workers probably don’t have radically different health care issues (phsyically, anyway), a short term healthcare buy-in to cover people wouldn’t be a bad idea. Wouldn’t cost the gov much, either since they’re just a few peeps to manage the listings and delistings.

10

What I don’t understand is why our insurance is still tied to the employer. If I’m paying for it all myself, then why isn’t it mine?

11

You might want to look into catastrophe insurance, as a backup if you are worried about a major disaster. I have no experience with it, but it seems like a good idea.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Catastrophic-Health-Insurance---How-to-Get-the-Best-Rate&id=680562

12

Because the rates you are paying were negotiated by and for the employer. It is a contract between the provider and the employer on behalf of the employees. That contract no longer exists.

Providers… eh… provide services and charge premiums based on what the employer wants and can afford. It takes into consideration the health profiles of all the employees, which effects how much you pay and what is covered. You yourself are a completely different set of factors that would likely not result in the same premiums and coverages.

How about getting a basic cancer/car wreck policy and save the money you’ve been paying for full-tilt-boogie insurance for doctors visits and meds?

Although I completely support you in the cum-rag-ishness of having the boss ruin the company that you are counting on and the completely fucked way the insurance company handled it. Can’t say I’m surprised, though. We’ve had employees quit months ago that we’re still paying premiums for. Insurance company assures us they’ll issue credits. Someday.

Oh! ETA: When shopping for insurance, explain what happened (ie - three months without insurance.) You’ll eventually get a certificate of creditable coverage, and maybe the new company will waive the pre-existing clauses if they understand that the lapse of coverage was no fault of yours. In addition, I’ve gone months/years without insurance and have issues I thought wouldn’t be covered under a pre-existing restriction, but they were covered without hesitation.

13

Catastophic Insurance: After hearing a lot of horror stories, we’re concerned that catastrophic insurance won’t cover something bad, but only somewhat catastrophic, say a heart attack, or becoming diabetic. Also, many of those plans have a lifetime limit that could be easily exceeded.

But, I guess we don’t have a choice now. We don’t mind paying for standard visits and the one medication he needs once a year out of pocket. We do mind having to choose which severed finger to get reattached.

What would help a lot is having a trustworthy insider. I’ve found some websites with basic advice, but that only goes so far. (“Pick an insurance plan that covers your needs” No shit!)

It looks like I need to spend the next several days filling out applications and reading fine print. Weee.

ETA: The COBRA company says that they’re going to give us a HIPPA letter, explaining what happened so his conditions don’t count as pre-existing. Fingers crossed.

14

You might not have to be concerned about pre-existing condition exclusions anyway. Last time I had to argue with a carrier about this was in 1991, and maybe the rules have changed since then, but in 1991, it wasn’t having a condition that excluded you, it was being treated for that condition within the past 90 days (or maybe it was six months). IOW, you could have a pre-existing condition but unless you’d been treated for it within a specified period of time, you couldn’t be excluded from coverage for that condition.

15

American health care is the only remaining place where we have a system that makes sense only to feudal lords of the middle ages .

16

You need to start your own Corp or LLP to get into business. It must be a legitimate business. You are then eligible to form a Group under California law. I did this recently and am now in a HealthNet HMO (although I’d been in the business for years) and the HMO covers my pre-existing condition. The PPO version doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions for six months and costs about $70 more a month.

17

That is an interesting idea. We actually own a small business (sole proprietorship) already. What did it cost you to go LLP?

18

That’s called a “HIPAA Cert” in the biz, and it certifies that you were eligible for continuous, uninterrupted coverage and therefore, nobody can ping you for the pre-existing conditions. It doesn’t solve the immediate problem of not having insurance between jobs, but at least you won’t be rejected for coverage or have to pay a higher premium due to the pre-existing. The COBRA company is required to provide it to you by law.

19

It’s very easy to do. Feel free to email or PM me. I don’t want to give advice in a general thread, but I am a licensed california insurance agent who specializes in small business policies.

20

Pullet,

A couple of things:

DO investigate what is available from your state. In my case (Indiana) I became eligible for state-subsidized insurance after 6 months uncovered. Our share is no more than 5% of our average monthly income (we just were declared eligible, so I’m still getting details).

Also, my county has a program that has been paying 1/3 of the cost of my husband’s prescriptions - this coverage is only available to people without health insurance in my county, and is yet another example of odd little government programs that can help you IF you know about them.

ALSO - if you’re without insurance and wind up paying entirely out of your own pocket tell the provider because many (although not all) do provide discounts to the uninsured, although they don’t advertise that fact. For example, a couple months ago I had to get some medical testing done. I called ahead to inquire about price, payment, etc. and found that because I was a “self-pay” patient willing and able to pay in full at time of service they cut the price of the test in HALF. Sure, it still cost money, but it was the difference between “difficult” and “impossible”.

And if your husband only has one illness a year requiring a doctor visit you probably won’t find pre-existing clauses too onerous. Probably. Because some insurers really are dickheads. But pre-existing exclusions aren’t (usually) as draconian as they used to be.

Ask questions, and question everything.