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COBRA: What Happens If I Lose Or Change Jobs?
If you have found yourself about to lose your health insurance that you had through your job because of unforeseen events, then there is a way that you may be able to be covered for a limited time. Federal laws passed in 1986, established the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, demands that an employer offer covered individuals to be able to continue that coverage for up to 18 months, and even longer for their dependents under certain circumstances. Here are some of the ways that COBRA insurance might be able to benefit you.
Qualifying Events For Cobra
In order to be able to qualify for the COBRA program, there needs to be certain factors that will allow you to qualify. For an employee the terms are pretty general - a termination, whether voluntary or involuntary. Just about anything goes here except for gross neglect or misconduct. Qualifying factors for a beneficiary, a wife or child of an employee, include such things as a divorce or legal separation, the employee becoming eligible for Medicare, or the death of the employee. In the circumstances of a divorce, the covered spouse may have the coverage extended for as much as 36 months. If the company goes out of business, however, there will be no coverage - but you still may get coverage through HIPAA.
Premiums For Coverage
While the law does provide for the insurance to be continued, it becomes the responsibility of the insured individuals to cover all the costs of the insurance. This, of course, can add quite a bit to the cost of the premiums, because, in most cases, the employer was paying at least a part of it. So, the policy will now cost a great deal more for the same coverage.
Because this may be financially difficult under some circumstances, it may be a good idea to consider this as a short-term health insurance until you can find another group to be insured under. Once you get into a new group policy, this would again reduce the rates to a more comfortable level - in most cases.
Limited Time To Apply
When a qualifying event occurs, you have up to 30 days to let the plan administrator (employer) know that you want the coverage. They will then issue you a letter within 14 days, and you then have up to 60 days after that to decide if you want the COBRA coverage. Waiting around will not benefit, you need to apply for it as soon as the opportunity comes.
Benefits Of The Program
In order to apply for COBRA coverage, you really do not need to do very much. Since you were already covered, they already have most of your information. The coverage will also stay the same, and there most likely will not be any preexisting conditions.
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Free Health Insurance Quotes
By comparing health plans with other rates, you should be able to find the right plan. You can get your free health insurance quotes at the following sites:
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