My job's ending. My last day (for real this time, no more extensions) is December 2. Since I'm working in December, I'll have coverage for December, but then it ends.
I don't have a job lined up in Chicago. I feel fairly good about my odds of finding one once I get there - you gotta be local both for the beating feet part and for using temp agencies (you have to be present in order to jump on short notice opportunities) - but even after I hire on I will have to wait probably 90 days for a probationary period before insurance coverage will start. While I have found that using a temp agency really makes finding a job easier, it also extends that wait time, because when you're with the agency, you are the agency's employee, and the company you're working with is the agency's client. Mostly I have found that even if a temp agency provides insurance, it's not worth partaking.
So. Even in a pretty good scenario, I might be without corporate coverage of my insurance for up to four months. In previous years, I have just let my coverage lapse after my job ended and picked it up when I became eligible at the new place. With my relatively new diagnosis of diabetes, though, I'm not in the same boat as I was the last time I changed jobs. My meds aren't a problem - my nurse practitioner prescribed me six months worth of them so that I could buy them all now while the discounts that go with my current coverage still apply. My main worry is overall cost: if I let my coverage lapse now, I'll have a preexisting condition, which I am told will mean that the underwriters can slap riders on any new policy for me that will for up to two years. As I understand it, riders are baaaaad.
The way to avoid this is to pay for Cobra coverage between jobs... but that will cost me $458 a month, which will come to almost $2000 for my hypothetical four months. That's not even considering the possibility that I WON'T find a job. I'm competent but there are a lot of bodies out there right now, so I have to be realistic about that possibility.
I don't know if there are other options for insurance coverage that also count as "not lapsing in coverage," I don't know how much more the riders will make coverage for me and whatever company hires me once I do get insurance again, and I don't really know how to find out these things. Yeah, "Google it," I know, but in this case, I don't really know what I'm looking for, and there's a plethora of information out there; based on some preliminary searching I assume much of it is scammy crap, and in this case I am ignorant enough that I'm afraid I will fail to sort out the chaff. Any research abilities I have are overbalanced by the fact that insurance and the issues that surround it make me feel stupid and I tend to blank out, and the last thing I need right now is to also get screwed in a really stupid and avoidable way.
So that's my sad story. If anybody has advice, I am exceedingly interested in hearing what that might be.
I don't have a job lined up in Chicago. I feel fairly good about my odds of finding one once I get there - you gotta be local both for the beating feet part and for using temp agencies (you have to be present in order to jump on short notice opportunities) - but even after I hire on I will have to wait probably 90 days for a probationary period before insurance coverage will start. While I have found that using a temp agency really makes finding a job easier, it also extends that wait time, because when you're with the agency, you are the agency's employee, and the company you're working with is the agency's client. Mostly I have found that even if a temp agency provides insurance, it's not worth partaking.
So. Even in a pretty good scenario, I might be without corporate coverage of my insurance for up to four months. In previous years, I have just let my coverage lapse after my job ended and picked it up when I became eligible at the new place. With my relatively new diagnosis of diabetes, though, I'm not in the same boat as I was the last time I changed jobs. My meds aren't a problem - my nurse practitioner prescribed me six months worth of them so that I could buy them all now while the discounts that go with my current coverage still apply. My main worry is overall cost: if I let my coverage lapse now, I'll have a preexisting condition, which I am told will mean that the underwriters can slap riders on any new policy for me that will for up to two years. As I understand it, riders are baaaaad.
The way to avoid this is to pay for Cobra coverage between jobs... but that will cost me $458 a month, which will come to almost $2000 for my hypothetical four months. That's not even considering the possibility that I WON'T find a job. I'm competent but there are a lot of bodies out there right now, so I have to be realistic about that possibility.
I don't know if there are other options for insurance coverage that also count as "not lapsing in coverage," I don't know how much more the riders will make coverage for me and whatever company hires me once I do get insurance again, and I don't really know how to find out these things. Yeah, "Google it," I know, but in this case, I don't really know what I'm looking for, and there's a plethora of information out there; based on some preliminary searching I assume much of it is scammy crap, and in this case I am ignorant enough that I'm afraid I will fail to sort out the chaff. Any research abilities I have are overbalanced by the fact that insurance and the issues that surround it make me feel stupid and I tend to blank out, and the last thing I need right now is to also get screwed in a really stupid and avoidable way.
So that's my sad story. If anybody has advice, I am exceedingly interested in hearing what that might be.
So you would have to pay the full amount of the prescription, but unless that's more than $500/month, it's better than the COBRA.
Edit: i missed the part about riders. In this case, i would contact Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (because they are a large insurance company) and ask them about diabetes as a preexisting condition and what that will really mean as far as your coverage.
Edited at 2008-12-01 03:30 am (UTC)
I'm covered for drugs, it's just plain cost of coverage and the risk of riders that worry me.
Thank you, that's a good idea!
*ed* I put that info into the main post.
Edited at 2008-12-01 04:03 am (UTC)
(i still think contacting an insurance company directly is the best source of information. They'll probably need to know things like "PPO or HMO? And which HMO?" but assuming you manage to get someone helpful on the line, they'll be the ones to know for certain about their coverage options.
Also, you may want to look into how much health insurance would cost for you to purchase outright. There is a chance (however minimal) that it might be less than the COBRA.
I do plan to look into independent coverage, probably at a lower level. I just need to know before I do that if it will hurt me in the long run, even if it is less in the short-term.
I don't know how the insurance companies for individuals would handle the preexisting condition even though you are being consistently covered. You may want to get the COBRA set up and then look for an individual plan at BCBS or the like when you get here... it would give you a bit of time to try to navigate what is available and get yourself settled here.
The question is, what constitutes continuous coverage and at what point can riders be introduced? I think that's the crux of what I need to figure out.
Thanks!
Um, sorry I wasn't clear. I was thinking about the company buying the insurance, not the one providing the insurance. When I left my last job, I was able to get a better COBRA price by switching to a different insurance that was offered. That was the federal government, though...
Even if so that might not apply to me if both of your jobs were for the federal government. I could look for work with IL, though, since I work for NE now...
I had no blazing preexisting conditions at the time, but enough minor crap I didn't want to risk going off of COBRA. I don't know how well it would work for me now, though.