COBRA Insurance Nastiest Boondoggle

By Brad Nock


COBRA, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act: how people need it and resent it at the same time. With people losing their jobs and getting laid off left and right this year, the special provisions of this rule help people basically buy medical insurance from the employers they used to work for, and they lovingly call this COBRA medical insurance in honor of the law passed under Ronald Reagan that makes this possible, the government is said to help its people get the chance of buying medical insurance from their past employers. It is primarily meant for people who are unable to match the age specifications being fixed by Medicaid. However, this aid often reminds them of those times wherein they feel that they are being tagged of using it like food stamps.

Former employees, retirees along with their dependents are entitled to temporarily continue paying their COBRA health benefit as a group. It is also a fact that COBRA's group health insurance costs more unlike those employed workers. This is because, employers are required to pay a part of the premiums of their employees.

COBRA provides medical assistance for their beneficiaries which includes; hospital care (inpatient or outpatient), physician care, surgical and other major medical benefits, also prescription drugs and other medical cares such as those of dental and optical clinics. Isn't it a great relief for a lot of people to receive these benefits? However, on the contrary it appears to be stripping these people of their precious possessions instead.

We've known a harmoniously living couple; the husband is closing in on 70, and was laid off from a job as a shelf stocker quite a while ago; he receives his Social Security check, a couple thousand dollars, and is more or less okay. His spouse worked as a supervisor at a nearby bookshop until recently she also lost her job because the bookshop chain got bankrupt. Losing her paychecks, she wouldn't be able to buy her costly medicines if it wasn't for her application in the COBRA. Before, when she still had her job, she used to pay about a few hundred dollars per month. But not anymore, President Obama passed a business stimulus package back in the beginning of the year, that allows the unemployed and the laid-off to claim deeply subsidized COBRA medical insurance benefits only for 9 months. Unluckily, the old woman has to divide her unemployment benefit paychecks equally to the COBRA medical insurance and herself by March, with a total of about $1000 each half. Today, they keep on pondering where they would reside after spending what's left with their unemployment benefits.

Why is it that the COBRA insurance plan insist on sending people to work in this economic climate? Are there available jobs for old people which would support them in their health benefits rather than give them wages? Does the government just want people to work themselves to death although they are sick? What else is left for those who will be laid off who can't even claim their 9-month COBRA health benefits. The newly framed COBRA benefit works in this pattern. A lot of those who lose their jobs are entitled with a $1000 unemployment claim or even less, minus the cost of an average COBRA insurance of about less than or equal to $800.

The problem brought about by the COBRA is now being fixed by the government itself through reforms. But that is going to take time. What would you do if like that elderly couple, your benefits are running out very soon? Short-term medical insurance coverage is what everyone needs.

Well, the first rule of the game is, never to stop making payments for your COBRA medical insurance. One mean thing about it, is the fact that you wont be notified once the financed rate is about to end. You will just notice that your bills get a bit bulkier, which then drives you to find all means to pay it immediately. Once you cease your payments, that's the time they begin counting you as without medical insurance. They will give you a 63-day period to pay your dues before totally losing your COBRA insurance. Your insurance will be saved once you pay the said amount before the fixed deadline. If it takes longer than that, then when you come to them for coverage one day, they count you as an all new customer, and you'll have to pay unimaginable premiums like any new insurance customer with all kinds of existing ailments does. Isn't it more advantageous to just continue the group health insurance?

When the law passes and makes COBRA medical insurance kinder to people, they'll pay you back for whatever you spent. Making regular inquiries from your COBRA executive about the refunds gives you greater chances of getting instant notices as soon as it is ready. One certainly hopes that sense prevails over in Washington. But, if you need coverage, get an affordable health insurance plan at Insure-Insurance.com




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