frrussre

As I have said before, we are lucky my wife has full family medical coverage FOC, $10 co-pay for doctor visits, FOC Rx's & no referrals needed.
We are looking to move to another State, 2006. My wife called up Cobra, to get information on the Cobra benefits & charges. We will need this for 30 - 60 days before new employment Med Ins kicks in.

Wow, Cobra $1270 per month. Max 18 months. Plus all the jobs offers she is looking at, do not give the quality of Insurance we have. 1st she would have to pay extra for family cover, 2nd, Co-pays are higher, 3rd, Rx's no longer FOC, etc etc. At a minimum, we would be paying $500 mo, out of pocket.
The cost of moving keeps growing.
Reg. Frank R.

BigDavyG

Yep, only in the US could a government try to sell COBRA as a great benefit. It saves hassle when switching jobs, but only if you are prepared to pay through the nose. Basically a way to avoid hassle for the very well-off - not a great benefit for the rest of us.

Manc

or the very sick, as Cobra has no pre-existing conditions clause, hence it's expensive.

jamjar

Yes. Also it's so expensive 'cos you are now picking up the costs that your employer normally pays.

Manc

correct.

BigDavyG

Ahh, but if you were very sick you would only have 18 months cover with cobra and would be unlikely to be moving jobs or getting paid enough by your current employer to cover the cobra payments.

Manc

if you were employed and not covered through work, why would you get Cobra? You can get decent health insurance for $150 per person give or take privately.


scenario.........

you have to have kidney dialysis every week to remain alive.
no biggy, your group insurance through work picks up the tab.

you gat laid off, 2 choices.

a) pay for dialysis yourself for 18 months and go bankrupt
b) pay Cobra for 18 months, but they'll pay the many many thousands for dialysis instead of you.

jamjar

I'm not trying to attack you but I have to respond to this.
a)you (or a family member) can have an expensive medical condition without being "very sick".
B) What's your health (or a family member's health) got to do with how much you get paid?
C) People move jobs for all kinds of reasons and sometimes it's unavoidable.

BigDavyG

OK, so its not a great point. What I meant is that you would have been unlikely to have saved up enough cash from your current salary to be able to cobra.
A lot of my friends are contractors so they have had reason to look into this in the past. For a family of 4 you would expect to pay $1.8k in cobra fees per month.
All I'm saying is that i don't see it as a great bill, that's all.

BigDavyG

In this country has it not got quite a lot to do with what you get paid ???

BritGuyTN

Correct

A 5k bill to some people may put them into bankruptcy

to others it could be an annoyance

dunroving

I think the whole benefits package (health care, pension, etc.) is often very poorly communicated when you are job hunting - yet it can make a HUGE difference financially.

My job in TN had fantastic healthcare (no premiums, very low co-pays, very low prescription costs with no BS "generic" crapola, no yearly deductible, great dental and vision coverage). Here it's not bad but every simple visit to the doctor seems to cost 100-200 dollars.

Pension wise, here you have to stay for at least 5 years for employer contributions to pension to be "vested" (belong to the employer). So an average paid professor who leaves on year 4, day 364 would stand to lose about 25,000 dollars plus interest - but finding this out at interview is like squeezing blood out of a stone!

I make a point with any interviewee in my department to give them a plain talk about benefits, especially the pension thing, so they don't come here under false pretenses.

Manc

It's not.
I'd only EVER get Cobra if it were financially condusive to do so....ie if I needed a shedload of pills and had pre-existing conditions, and at that point Cobra knows this, knows that there is a high chance that they're gonna pay out, and therefore need a high premium not to go bankrupt themselves.

frrussre

A lot of people choose to use Cobra as a carry over Insurance, because they are going to new employment & the medical at the new Job does not kickin for 30 -60 days. It's easier to use Cobra, then get a private Ins for 1 -2 months. Because most people have some Pre Existing, its easier with COBRA.
Reg. Frank R.

Manc

I know

that's what I just said. But if you have pre-existing conditions then it's never going to be cheap is it?

It's the equivalent of insuring a car you know is going to be in a 30 car motorway pileup next week.