Vent: COBRA insurance, seriously??

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So I was laid off last month. Still waiting to get my application for COBRA insurance. I called the number to ask them when it was coming and asked them how much it was going to cost to have me and my husband on COBRA....$1,000 a MONTH just for medical. Seriously??? My unemployment check will not even come close to covering that, not even half! I am not in favor of Obama Care, but today I am seriously wishing some one would come up with a reasonable universal health care...Take my job away so I have no income and expect me to pay THAT for insurance...what are they smoking?

What is shocking is that someone could work in the health care industry and be so unaware of the heath insurance industry. The current debate about health care is actually about health insurance. Personally I see them as unnecessary middlemen that are parasitic. Although I do like Japan's system. PBS did an excellent special on it and other socialized systems around the world. Perhaps it could be a pre-requisite of nursing school to have a little more life experience that way we would not have hard hearted medical professionals who treat Medicaid recipient badly.

I've said this before also - the current debate is over insurance - not health care per se. The big insurance companies are fighting this tooth and nail, and right now they are winning. I don't have a fear of "socialized medicine". Other advanced countries have had it for years, and it's been proven to work for it's citizens. Recognize insurance industry propaganda when you see and hear it. I don't buy any of it.

Your comment on having more life experience as a pre-req for nursing school is interesting. I've read comments on other threads here to the effect that no one over 30 should be allowed to attend nursing school. I'm more inclined to agree with you - I'm 56 y.o. and will be in nursing school hopefully later this year, working as a nurse's aide right now. I look at my life experience as a plus, not a minus.....

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

OK this is what you do. Sign the COBRA forms, but DO NOT mail them. Set them aside and tell someone who you can trust, if something happens like you get seriously hurt or ill then

mail the forms. You have I think its 90 days to turn them in. Because as you know you

could spend a $1000 in the ED in about 5 mins if you get a CT. This advice came from a former employer's HR manager. Once you get your next job and are covered with insurance then tear them up.

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OK this is what you do. Sign the COBRA forms, but DO NOT mail them. Set them aside and tell someone who you can trust, if something happens like you get seriously hurt or ill then

mail the forms. You have I think its 90 days to turn them in. Because as you know you

could spend a $1000 in the ED in about 5 mins if you get a CT. This advice came from a former employer's HR manager. Once you get your next job and are covered with insurance then tear them up.

45 days to respond

90 to pay

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Um, it's not "slightly" higher...sorry but you're wrong there. It was close to 3x the cost for us. I know what my pre-tax deductions were, and I know what my medical deductions were. There is a nice breakdown on each check.

Your health insurance premium under COBRA is, by law, what your insurance cost as an employee, at the group rate, plus a maximum of 2% more for "administrative" costs. So the most you are paying, by law, is 2% more than you were paying before. You just never saw the full cost of the insurance before. The amount that shows up on your paycheck as "deducted" for your health insurance is almost never the full cost of the health insurance; it's just the "employee's contribution" toward the full cost (your employer claims to be paying the rest of the cost for tax purposes, and takes the tax deduction for it). However, in reality, we're paying the full cost ourselves -- as I said before, it's basically income that we earn but never see (that money certainly isn't coming out of our employer's pocket ...)

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Amen.

A lot of people are going to be finding out that they shot themselves in the foot by opposing what they derisively call "Obama Care".

Many previous admins tried to pass this. It was a big concern of the Truman admin back in the 40's and 50's. What's happening today is about as close as we'll ever come to pushing this through.

Ok, this is about the 3rd time I've repeated this..but how come not agreeing with "Obama care" is the same as not agreeing that reform needs to happen? Its not Obama's way or nothing. And actually it is hard to really say whether or not I agree until I see the final plan. Pushing something through because something needs to be done is no improvement. Once the plan is approved and put in effect it will be just as hard to change it again. I want to see us do this the right way. I've seen some good and some bad in "Obama's plan".

So tell me, how can you suggest that you agree with a plan that is not really a plan yet. ;) BTW I'm not specifically picking on you, you just were the last to comment on this.

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The COBRA premiums are way less than it would cost you to get the same policy w/out your companies group rate. Remember that the premium may be high, but it is nothing compared to what the insurance company pays out when you use it. I have seen hospital bills for a baby delivery that were at leat $13k. Thats just for the hospital. I would rather pay the $1000 in COBRA premium than $13k to be without it. So if you put it into perspective the premium is not that bad compared to what you would be out of pocket without it.

No, the insurance companies have negotiated rates that are much lower than an individual's out-of-pocket costs, so they don't pay that much when you use the insurance.

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Until I see people driving smaller cars, wearing less fancy clothes, get rid of some of their screen tvs, and fancy phones I can not understand people complaining about the cost of insurance. We dont have a problem buying a $1000 tv, but will complain about a $250 deductible for our health. I work in benefits at my job and it floors me when people complain about COBRA or any other costs. It is a high premium...I agree, but is it the company or governments fault that you do not have a savings for times such as this? I would not be able to afford COBRA either , but it is no ones fault but mine. In an economy like this I should have more in savings than I do. Less haircuts, less eating out, less trips to the movie theater. We all have to be prepared.

I drive a paid for 15 year old car when I drive. I walk most everywhere. I have dial up Internet. I don't own a cell phone. I don't have cable or satellite TV. I live in a small trailer house which I rent for $500/month. I don't have a credit card. I buy most of my clothes from the second hand shop, the rest I make. My furniture is early American junk. I rarely go out to eat or see a movie. Most of my money goes towards the $300 a month for medications and towards the medical bills that I owe because I cannot get health insurance because of these lovely pre-existing conditions that I didn't ask for. What else should I give up?

What makes me mad are the reproducing welfare people people who are government insured. The illegals who somehow get their health care paid for. People who blame me because they feel that my life style is too rich and I'm wasting my money on other things. Somehow the only way that I can get affordable and available health care is to quit my job and go on disability. I know that if I were to do that I'd either be in jail or dead. Working gives me focus and a purpose. I know of many people who could work that are on disability because they wouldn't be able to get adquate health care otherwise. Sadly most of these people are quite bad off because they have no purpose or focus.

Fuzzy

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Specializes in Home Health.

The "system" is what has caused this. I am sem iretired and have to watch every penny. i have patients on medicaid that take 2-3 vacations a year. Go figure! All this while the taxpayers pick up the tab for their rent,groceries,medicines,equipmentetc. I get angry sometimes when I think of my mom an American born citizen who has medicare only and get jack in help. First question asked Do you have medicaid? She is expected to everything on 1120 a month, go figure

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Ok, this is about the 3rd time I've repeated this..but how come not agreeing with "Obama care" is the same as not agreeing that reform needs to happen? Its not Obama's way or nothing. And actually it is hard to really say whether or not I agree until I see the final plan. Pushing something through because something needs to be done is no improvement. Once the plan is approved and put in effect it will be just as hard to change it again. I want to see us do this the right way. I've seen some good and some bad in "Obama's plan".

So tell me, how can you suggest that you agree with a plan that is not really a plan yet. ;) BTW I'm not specifically picking on you, you just were the last to comment on this.

So, which bill is "Obama care"? Was it H.R. 3962, that passed the House in November? Or was it H.R. 3590, that passed in the Senate in December? Why do you use the term "Obama care"? Are you just going to oppose anything you can attach his name to? What do you mean by "final plan"? No plan is final until it's passed and signed into law, which is a little late for you to say whether you agree or disagree. I applaud the idea of not claiming support or opposition until you're informed, but you can inform yourself NOW. The ANA has some information about the proposed reform that might be helpful to you in forming an opinion before it's too late: http://www.nursingworld.org/healthcarereformtoolkit. I'm not totally satisfied with either of these bills, either; I think far too much has been compromised and that single payer universal care similar to what some European and Asian countries have would be the more affordable, sensible way to go. But that's not going to happen here. Compromise is necessary, on both sides, and I have not seen Republicans willing to compromise on anything. So I support the current bill (which is available for you to read on the internet), because we need to make some progress. This issue is serious, and I cannot tolerate the dismissive "Obama care" language. Get informed and communicate respectfully or be quiet and get out of the way, please.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Um, it's not "slightly" higher...sorry but you're wrong there. It was close to 3x the cost for us. I know what my pre-tax deductions were, and I know what my medical deductions were. There is a nice breakdown on each check.

Sorry to inform you, but BY LAW, COBRA bills only have a slight add on charge to them.

Your employer has been paying that for your insurance. The vast majority of working employees are only charged a small percentage of the actual fee for their insurance and the employer pays the rest, which is what makes it a BENEFIT. That small percentage that you is what you see deducted on your check.

Now, realize that cost to the employer is money that you do not receive in your check. You may only be receiving 25-35 dollars an hour, but then your employer is often chipping for your retirement contributions, SS (which many of us will never see), full amount for your insurance (of which many of us only pay a small fee), and other benefits. So your employer is paying a lot more for you than you see, and much of it is not on your check stub.

When you leave a job, you have to recognize that you are leaving a lot more than that 25-35 dollars an hour. COBRA charges you the full amount, not just the percentage you have been having deducted.

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Specializes in Phase 2, Home Health.

In 2007 my husband's employer stopped paying into the insurance without telling anyone (while still withholding from the checks) and then ducked out of the country leaving everyone in the lurch. No one knew whether they had a job and no one imagined the insurance had gone unpaid for months. He had been farmed off to another company they owned as was still getting paid so we had no idea our insurance had cancelled until I got a request for payment from a emergency care center for our daughter. It turned out the policy had been cancelled for nonpayment since April and it was now November...too late for portability. We had received no notice whatsoever, payment had been withheld from his paycheck but not sent in, and we had no recourse. Yes, we did what we could legal-wise. I tried to get an individual policy through the same company since I was only PRN at work and not eligible there but I was denied coverage for my pre-existings. My pre-existings? Migraine headaches and postpartum depression. That is it. I was so mad I could spit. I changed my elibility at work and signed us up thru there only to get laid off Nov 2009. Thanks to the subsidy we have COBRA at $500 for now. Since we are both out of work right now we really can't afford even that right now, but are somehow making it work...just eating less. I have surgery on Monday and start a new job on the 8th so here's hoping my surgery stays as simple as planned otherwise we will be in big trouble.

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Most people who are on Medicaid are there because they had catastrophic medical bills and were forced onto it. There are employers who will let go an employee who would raise their group rate, not hire someone who might use the benefit more,many many employers who do not provide it at all, insurers who drop long time customer who becomes ill, etc. They now deem a child who had simple hip dysplasia as uninsurable. That is why there needs to be reform. Meanwhile they don't need nurses to give them attitude and act like they don't deserve medical care. That's not a valid nursing diagnosis. You are overstepping your bounds.

I have never heard such nonsense as "incentive to stay middleclass". Medical bills are the main cause of bankruptcy in this country and therefore the thing that pushes most people out of the middleclass. Down not up. Nobody needs to be pushed up there is plenty of greed to go around. I also seriously doubt people will quit their jobs to stay home for free medical care. Most of us work for other little things like a home, food, etc. And only want medical care when needed. It's not like going to the spa.

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