COBRA question-- please read if you know anything about COBRA

[kpgclark]

I resigned today and have a question about COBRA coverage. My health insurance will run through the end of February. After that I'm planning to purchase family medical insurance privately because I can get coverage for about half the price I'd have to pay under COBRA. I understand that the company I work for (large company) has to give me some sort of notification of my options under COBRA and then I have a certain number of days to decide whether to continue my insurance under COBRA with my current employer. Everyone in my family is healthy. I'm wondering if I can float a "free" month of health insurance. By that I mean if I apply for private health insurance and have a start date of April 1 I can get by with not paying for the month of March. If something catastrophic were to happen in March then I could just elect to receive my current insurance under COBRA and I'd be covered. If nothing happens in March then I can float a free month of insurance. Hope that made sense! Is my thought process correct??

 

[riley2008]

I think you'll have to make the decision before your insurance runs out. So no, you probably won't be able to float a month. (You'd probably be able to do this had your insurance ran out this month.)

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I resigned today and have a question about COBRA coverage. My health insurance will run through the end of February. After that I'm planning to purchase family medical insurance privately because I can get coverage for about half the price I'd have to pay under COBRA. I understand that the company I work for (large company) has to give me some sort of notification of my options under COBRA and then I have a certain number of days to decide whether to continue my insurance under COBRA with my current employer. Everyone in my family is healthy. I'm wondering if I can float a "free" month of health insurance. By that I mean if I apply for private health insurance and have a start date of April 1 I can get by with not paying for the month of March. If something catastrophic were to happen in March then I could just elect to receive my current insurance under COBRA and I'd be covered. If nothing happens in March then I can float a free month of insurance. Hope that made sense! Is my thought process correct??

Yes, I believe your thought process is correct, but you should confirm with the COBRA requirements before you take the chance.

 

[MickeyMickey]

Yes you should be able to float a month, no problem. You can retroactively take COBRA if neccessary.

 

[Pakey]

You can definitely do that.

 

[kcoffey4]

Yes, you can! My husband and I just did that very thing. He resigned from his job in NOvember and we floated from November 12 until January 1. You have a certain number of days to make the election and then a certain number of days to pay for it. Complete the paperwork and inform a close friend or family member what you are doing so if something catastrophic does happen, that person can make the election for you and send in the money.

Luckily we made it until January 1!

 

[love2disney]

Ok correct me if I am wrong but dont u have to give a certificate of continuous coverage to a new insurance company to cover pre exisiting conditions. If that is ture you cant free float.

Also if you do opt for cobra keep in mind it takes a lllllllllllloooooooooonnng time to actally inplement and pay

 

[Tink-aholic]

Ok correct me if I am wrong but dont u have to give a certificate of continuous coverage to a new insurance company to cover pre exisiting conditions. If that is ture you cant free float.

HIPAA implemented a 63-day period that you can be uninsured before an insurance company can consider a condition pre-existing. So this plan to "float" a month does not interfere with that.

 

[disfan07]

Are there ANY pre-existing conditions. ANYTHING that the insurance compnies could screw you over for?

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, ANY past conditions at all?

If there has been anything like that in your history, the insurance company WILL find it and use it against you for coverage.

Insurance companies liek to play games. They enojy being able to mess with you. Personally, if there is anything that could possibly be used against you in teh pre-existing conditions, I would not free float a month.

the way insurnace companies like to play around, I would not risk it.

 

[disneymom3]

Are there ANY pre-existing conditions. ANYTHING that the insurance compnies could screw you over for?

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, ANY past conditions at all?

If there has been anything like that in your history, the insurance company WILL find it and use it against you for coverage.

Insurance companies liek to play games. They enojy being able to mess with you. Personally, if there is anything that could possibly be used against you in teh pre-existing conditions, I would not free float a month.

the way insurnace companies like to play around, I would not risk it.

Doesn't matter. As Tink said above, if you are at less than 63 days when you get new insurance, you are within the window that they are not allowed to exclude pre-exisiting conditions.

OP, your plan is fine. just watch that 63 days. I have done this and have a son born with only one kidney which wasn't healthy at birth. I have MS. Talk about major pre-exisiting conditions. We have done it twice. Once DH got insurance from his new company, once he was working as a consultant and we waited our 60 days and then signed up for a short term policy. All was fine.

 

[MickeyMickey]

Are there ANY pre-existing conditions. ANYTHING that the insurance compnies could screw you over for?

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, ANY past conditions at all?

If there has been anything like that in your history, the insurance company WILL find it and use it against you for coverage.

Insurance companies liek to play games. They enojy being able to mess with you. Personally, if there is anything that could possibly be used against you in teh pre-existing conditions, I would not free float a month.

the way insurnace companies like to play around, I would not risk it.

As long as it is not more than a 63 day break, the pre existing conditions make no difference

 

[pantherlj]

Are there ANY pre-existing conditions. ANYTHING that the insurance compnies could screw you over for?

High blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, ANY past conditions at all?

If there has been anything like that in your history, the insurance company WILL find it and use it against you for coverage.

Insurance companies liek to play games. They enojy being able to mess with you. Personally, if there is anything that could possibly be used against you in teh pre-existing conditions, I would not free float a month.

the way insurnace companies like to play around, I would not risk it.

Well, insurance companies are businesses. They don't enjoy messing with people just to screw them over. They do have to control the risk they are exposed to though.

With pre ex - they do have to cover it but with most companies, they will rate you for it and/or deny you coverage.

Make sure to see how long it takes to process an application/have a decision made on your application. You'll need to have the decision made on the individual policy before your option to take COBRA passes. As long as you are sure you have another option in place, you can easily float for a month and take cobra if something happens. Just don't turn down your cobra option until your other coverage is actually in place. While you can delay notifying them if you want it, you can't turn it down and then ask to have it.

 

[sdjen]

I beleive you have either 45 or 60 days before you have to make a payment for COBRA> so, even if you elect it on the last possible day, you still have a certain amount of time to pay it. If you dont pay it you just cant get it back but dont have coverage.

The only thing I would worry about with pre-ex is the "private" insurance thing. If you were getting coverage through another group health plan, you could not be denied coverage for pre-ex unless you had more than a 63 day gap in coverage. However, with private or individual coverage, they will do individual underwriting and could deny or not cover certain conditions.

Good luck!

 

[windycitymom]

HIPAA implemented a 63-day period that you can be uninsured before an insurance company can consider a condition pre-existing. So this plan to "float" a month does not interfere with that.

Is that something new? We had COBRA and it was expiring so we had to go to private insurance last May 2010. When you fill out a form for health sign insurance, they ask for pre-existing conditions. My DH was denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition EVEN THOUGH we signed up for insurance immediately so there wouldn't be a lapse. We had to show our COBRA coverage for verification, but he was still denied insurance. I had no idea you could get any insurance coverage with a pre-existing condition as long as it was within the 63-day window of having COBRA. I would have fought this with the insurance company that turned my DH down.

Thankfully it's not an issue now, he's back at work with good insurance.

 

[smokeyblue]

My family knows all about retroactive COBRA! My brother only gets insurance a few months of the year because of seasonal work. After his insurance ran out he had a 4-wheeler accident in the middle of the woods and a very expensive ambulance ride, ER visit and follow-up. His opportunity for COBRA was to run out a day or two after the accident. My dad had to loan him the money and Fed-Ex'd overnighted the check and forms.

My other brother was in between jobs and going through a divorce when his ex-wife drove drunk and got in a serious accident with my 5 year old nephew in the car. She failed to insure the car per the separation agreement and there were astronomical hospital bills for her and my nephew. She was airlifted to a bigger hospital and my nephew was in the ICU for a few days. My dad had to hurry up and pay the COBRA premium so my brother didn't end up in the poor house.

 

[Tink-aholic]

Is that something new? We had COBRA and it was expiring so we had to go to private insurance last May 2010. When you fill out a form for health sign insurance, they ask for pre-existing conditions. My DH was denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition EVEN THOUGH we signed up for insurance immediately so there wouldn't be a lapse. We had to show our COBRA coverage for verification, but he was still denied insurance. I had no idea you could get any insurance coverage with a pre-existing condition as long as it was within the 63-day window of having COBRA. I would have fought this with the insurance company that turned my DH down.

Thankfully it's not an issue now, he's back at work with good insurance.

No. HIPAA was enacted in the mid 1990s.

 

[jedijohn]

I resigned today and have a question about COBRA coverage. My health insurance will run through the end of February. After that I'm planning to purchase family medical insurance privately because I can get coverage for about half the price I'd have to pay under COBRA. I understand that the company I work for (large company) has to give me some sort of notification of my options under COBRA and then I have a certain number of days to decide whether to continue my insurance under COBRA with my current employer. Everyone in my family is healthy. I'm wondering if I can float a "free" month of health insurance. By that I mean if I apply for private health insurance and have a start date of April 1 I can get by with not paying for the month of March. If something catastrophic were to happen in March then I could just elect to receive my current insurance under COBRA and I'd be covered. If nothing happens in March then I can float a free month of insurance. Hope that made sense! Is my thought process correct??

That is what we did when I left a company 3 years ago and was working a contract-to-hire job w/o benefits. I think you have something like 60 days to elect COBRA. During that time I was looking at private health plans and was planning on purchasing right before the 60 day period was up. Towards the end of the 60 days we found out my wife was pregnant, so we elected the COBRA just for her since private plans typically don't cover maternity without an additional rider that has to be in effect 12 months pre-pregnancy. We had to pay the 2 months back premiums, plus the following months premium (that was a big check to write). It all worked out just fine.

 

[MeekoB]

Another story supporting the "float" we did it last year when my husband lost his job. We waited the 60 days hoping he would get a job in the meantime. When he didn't, we took Cobra retroactively and then for a couple of more months until he got a new job and the new healthcare kicked in.

 

[tinker&belle]

We had a 30 day waiting period for our new insurance. I checked with many different people from multiple agencies and yes you do you can do this. It worked well for us; we only had one sick child visit during the month and cobra would have been over 1000 dollars.

 

[Marionnette]

Is that something new? We had COBRA and it was expiring so we had to go to private insurance last May 2010. When you fill out a form for health sign insurance, they ask for pre-existing conditions. My DH was denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition EVEN THOUGH we signed up for insurance immediately so there wouldn't be a lapse. We had to show our COBRA coverage for verification, but he was still denied insurance. I had no idea you could get any insurance coverage with a pre-existing condition as long as it was within the 63-day window of having COBRA. I would have fought this with the insurance company that turned my DH down.

Thankfully it's not an issue now, he's back at work with good insurance.

It's not quite the same thing. Insurance companies cannot accept you but tell you that they will cover everything EXCEPT your pre existing condition. They can still turn you down as a subscriber or charge you a huge premium based on your pre existing condition.