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SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Health Insurance
Understand
COBRA Insurance
Don’t go into heart failure if you just lost
your job. There is a law that makes you eligible to keep your
medical coverage while you look for work. The federal
COBRA law makes you eligible for continual health coverage
for those
already covered on your insurance. This is very important to
make sure that people who are just divorced or have had a death
in the providing family member have the bridge coverage they
need. When either leaving a job or being let go from it, you
are eligible to keep receiving benefits from your employers
plan for 18 months by paying the premium yourself, That amount
would otherwise have been deducted from your paycheck. The
COBRA law is only 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 by law required
to be offered the option to hold onto their benefits at their
own expense till the allotted time runs out of they have new
coverage, which ever comes first.
There
are three groups of people eligible for COBRA coverage; employees or former employees in private business, there spouses,
and dependent children. You may get COBRA coverage for the
maximum period determined by your status. You don’t have to
take it at all, if you don’t need or want it, or for the entire
time if you get offered new insurance. State and local government
workers are also eligible as well as classified and independent
contractors. The only people who are exempt are federal employees
in Washington D.C., certain church-related persons, and firms
with less than 20 employees. But even in the cases where there
are not enough employees there could be eligibility. Some states
have mini-COBRA laws for small places to help out those types
of employees. The coverage will continue for all persons listed
on the original policy and any added dependents during the
allotted time frame.
To be eligible at all for COBRA you have to be covered under
an employer health plan. If you don’t already have medical
benefits you won’t qualify for this extended coverage. COBRA
isn’t a health care plan of its own; it is only a law that
protects workers from losing all insurance when leaving their
employer. All jobs will send you the information you need to
keep or deny this extended coverage. You may or may not be
given pricing information and might want to call the human
resource department to find out or the insurance company itself.
Your COBRA coverage will end when you reach the last day of
maximum coverage, you stop paying the premium, the employer
stops providing coverage to employees or goes out of business,
or you get new coverage somewhere else, either through work
or privately. The plans that are eligible for extended coverage
on these types of medical coverage; medical plans, dental,
prescription, and vision plans, drug and alcohol treatment
programs, and psychological treatment.
Paying
for COBRA is a personal responsibility to the individual. If you can’t afford it you might have to pass and not be covered.
The premiums can be very costly for people and even more than
when the person was employed. Employers get a fixed rate based
on the number of employees they have enrolled. The more employees
they have enrolled the cheaper the premiums for all employees.
A person on COBRA doesn’t qualify as an employee and will be
seen as a private insurer through the company. You will receive
the exact same benefits you had when you were working for your
job. An employer should advise you on all COBRA possibilities,
and not just the cheapest or most expensive. If you had more
than one plan then you have the right to elect continuing coverage
in any or all of them. If your former employer changes its
health insurance plan for its current employees, you are entitled
to receive benefits under the new plan as well, although the
benefits you get may change. If your employer switches plans,
you won't be able to keep the old plan, you will have to choose
to go to the new plan or drop coverage. Click here to to view health insurance quotes, compare plans side-by-side and apply for the most affordable health insurance within your budget. I did this myself (June 17, 2011) to change my health insurance policy. Saved me $84 per month (or $1,008 per year). It's my SolveYourProblem recommendation.
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by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
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