We received the info about COBRA insurance coverage today. Our insurance from Jim’s former employer lapsed on May 31. He should be getting insurance from his new job in 90 days. That leaves us without insurance for 3 months, a daunting thought when you have two young kids.
COBRA will cost us over $1000 a month. That will take a serious chunk out of our savings. So should we elect to take the coverage or not? I think we have another month before we have to decide. We’ll probably take the entire month to decide. It’s a gamble if we don’t take it. If we do, we could be spending $3K on money that we could instead use to pay down our debt.
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June 20th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Do you honestly think that you would spend more than 1000 a month on medical care for you or hubbie or the kids? I would not take it. If something happens, God Forbid, most all hospitals have a program to help cover the cost of medical bills for uninsured families. I’m praying for ya!!!
June 21st, 2007 at 11:13 am
I don’t think you should. Try looking at ehealthinsurance.com. They have short term health insurance. We went through there for ours. What we do is got a plan with a 2500 deductible and 0% coinsurance. Then, we transfered $2500 from our regular savings to a health savings account with a debit card to use for office visits, perscriptions, er, etc (and replentish it at the end of the year.) Personally, I don’t like depending on employment for healthcare coverage, because two people in my family did that and ended up in bankruptcy. Think about it. If you end up with a long term illness, you loose your job, and if you loose your job, you loose your coverage. If you loose your coverage, how to pay for the illness that caused you to loose your job in the first place? A few more people I knew worked through chemo treatments. It was brutal.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I don’t think we’re going to do it, specifically for the reason you stated, Carrie. In the next 3 months, other than an occasional doctor visit, we probably won’t use $3k worth of health insurance.
And thanks for that link, Danielle! I will definitely look into it. I probably won’t be able to get coverage for myself though. Most places turn me down, because I get migraines. Definitely worth looking into, though. And I never thought about what you said about depending on employers for insurance. Something to ponder, for sure.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Well, I am in the same situation right now and my hubby and I are electing to pay the COBRA. We are doing it because if for some reason my hubby did not get the new coverage we will have something to fall back on AND we won’t get slapped with a pre-exisitng conditions clause because we had a lapse in coverage. I had had cancer and my son has health concerns so we can’t get caught with insurance that won’t pay for pre-existing issues.
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
That makes total sense. It’s a lot harder when you’re dealing with pre-existing conditions. I’m hoping that when you said you “had cancer” it means you’re cancer free now.