YOUR |
YOUR |
by
Lin Stone
| COBRA Insurance Factors There is a Federal law that makes you eligible to keep your medical coverage if you lose your job or if you change jobs. COBRA makes you eligible for continual health coverage for those already covered on your insurance for up to one year and a half after you leave your job. This factor is very important as it helps to insure that people who are just divorced from or have had the death of the providing family member to have the bridge coverage they need. With COBRA these people can keep receiving insurance benefits from the employer's plan for 18 months -- by paying the premium themselves. | Try the Christian's Self Improvement Kit * Cheap Land can make you RICH! Get your next house at a HUGE discount. Start your own real estate empire. Click HERE and let us show you how to get in on this bonanza.
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| The COBRA law will only perform for work related insurances; personal plans are not covered. Anyone who was working and had medical coverage at the time of being dismissed or leaving is required by law to be offered the option to hold onto their benefits at their own expense until the allotted time runs out or they have new coverage -- which ever comes first. The only people who are exempt are federal and state employees and employees in certain church-related positions, and in firms with less than 20 employees. Some states have mini-COBRA laws for small places to help out those types of employees falling through the cracks. The coverage will continue for all persons listed on the original policy and any added dependents during the allotted time frame. Paying for COBRA is the personal responsibility of the individual. That means YOU. If you can’t afford to begin paying those premiums then you might have to pass COBRA up and go uncovered. All this time, your employer has been purchasing insurance at a group rate -- discounted by the insurance company on a fixed rate based on the number of employees they have enrolled. The more employees they have enrolled in the program, the cheaper the premiums are for the company to provide coverage for all its employees. As an individual, you won't be offered that great discount. The premiums charged to individuals can be very costly. Once you leave the company you no longer qualify as an employee. That means you are subject to the premiums offered to individuals. However, through COBRA you will receive the exact same benefits you had when you were working for your job. Is that worth fighting for? YES. Yes, especially if you have a pre-existing condition, or if you are popping over into an age bracket that raises your premiums. Being insured by the same insurance company means you can keep right on seeing your regular doctors and care providers for up to eighteen months.
Here's a great benefit: if your former employer changes its health insurance plan for its current employees during your COBRA period of coverage, you are entitled to receive benefits under the new plan as well, although the benefits you get may change. However, if your employer does switch plans, you will not be able to keep the old plan. You will have to choose to go to the new plan or drop coverage. |
About the author: Independently less than wealthy, Lin Stone is an author, writer and photographer living in Mena Arkansas among the gentle mountains known as Ouachita. His writing has appeared in almost one hundred magazines and Browzer Books has published seven of his books so far with more in the works.
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Read the fine print: My two lawyers say I must warn you to see a lawyer before trying any of the strategies in this book. You are my witness; I have told you. “Consult with a lawyer before you try any of these techniques.”
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