Mummy in the foothills

It may well be for a month.
Dh got a letter letting him know he could apply for cobra coverage when he had quit his job and had actually started at a new one (but insurance didn't kick in for three months) the cost for him alone was going to be Drum roll please ...... $5,000 a month yes that is thousands, I added him to our family Blue cross for just a few hundred.
It was Kaiser Permanente cover, with $20 per doctor visit and $30 per lab test, not even the great Kaiser coverage we'd had when the children were born. This was 6 years ago, not even recent.
Chances of Englishmum's friend finding insurance that doesn't cost thousands per month and have huge co-pays and deductibles is slim.

Sally Redux

I am still struggling to understand how 'the greatest country in the world' can put up with this utter shambles.

sallysimmons

You should tell her to check the government plans. Obama's healthcare law has provisions for people in her situation - a national high-risk insurance pool. US citizens and legal immigrants who have preexisting conditions and have been uninsured for at least six months can enroll in the pool and receive subsidies to help them afford the premiums.

sallysimmons

Wow, I've never heard of that much. We are self-employed, so pay for our own insurance and the cost is $1,400 a month for two of us. COBRA is simply the employee picking up the costs that his or her employer was paying so it's hard for me to fathom $5,000 - the company must have had a true cadillac plan with all the bells and whistles.

Mummy in the foothills

No Dh didn't have any cadillac plan with bells and whistles we couldn't figure out why it would cost so much either. I thought that would be more like the total that his boss paid out each month, there were only 4 employees and that included the two owners. It was a medical and optical only. No dental.
Now we have a cadillac plan, we are told it costs the company about $20,000 a year for the family. Thats medical, dental and optical

moi

Cobra coverage for my husband's old company he worked at was almost $2K per month for medical and dental....it's absoloutely insane.
Sorry to hear about your friend

Giantaxe

I wonder whether this is because it was such a small company? If there are less than 25 (?) employees they don't even have to offer COBRA.

Right, which is about what my employer and myself pay in total per year for pretty amazing family coverage . But that's still "only" $1700 a month which still leaves me puzzling over this $9000 a month.

Fish n Chips 56

Hello Moi, was that full coverage?.

Fish n Chips 56

Hello Mummy...
A Cadillac Plan, is that 100% full coverage?

moi

Yes - I believe it was for the same coverage as what he had when he worked there. I'm not 100% sure though because we never used it as he resigned from his job and moved on to a different company.

Mummy in the foothills

We have low deductibles, and and pay 20% of bills till the deductible is met (usually only one or two doctor visits) then it's 100% the rest of the year. So long as we are in network. (blue cross) We've never had it so good. Prescriptions are $5 or $10 depending on if it's name brand or generic.
Dental we have to pay a bit more, set amounts for different things. Glasses new pair every two years, exam annually, I just paid $45 total for my share, exam and new glasses.

Fish n Chips 56

Wow Im amazed, Ive never known anyone to have coverage as good as that, the best Ive had was 80% after deductibles. Good for You.

Mummy in the foothills

Yes us too, we love the Union But then in a few years when the contract is up it can all change, but we hope not to be here.
We spent the first 20 years with the usual scary kind of insurance.

Englishmum

I saw my friend at the weekend and I asked her about the $9k. It turned out that he is in dispute with his former employer (a major international financial organisation) - he wasn't made redundant, he was fired and he has seen an attorney about a compensation claim. From what I can gather, he was initially getting coverage for insurance after leaving his job - but then received a bill to pay for coverage for $9000 around late May or June. He hasn't paid it and the insurance was cancelled...then of course my friend discovered that she had ovarian cancer.

She is cheesed off as she had paid many thousands of $ over the years into her own health insurance plans, but when she met this guy and had a baby with him they all went onto his (better) health insurance scheme and now she's regretting it bitterly. I think it's causing a lot of tension in the relationship.

She isn't currently on chemo or radiation, but is using up the last of her airmiles to fly back to Australia next month for a follow-up visit.

SallySimmons - thanks for the 'heads up' about the 'high-risk' insurance pool. She hasn't been without insurance for six months so far, but has dual natioanlity. I know she wants to get her children insured asap though and is looking up plans on e-insurance etc.

Englishmum

Today's "New York Times" has a report that US Health Insurance costs are rising sharply:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/bu...s.html?_r=1&hp