Georgia Health Insurance 411

Posts Tagged ‘COBRA’

A short video from the folks at Humana. Learn about COBRA in  3 minutes, 28 seconds.

For more information on COBRA, check out COBRA insurance.

You may able to qualify for major medical that is more affordable than COBRA.

Finding affordable health insurance in Georgia is relatively easy for most folks. When you adopt a bare bones approach and only pay for coverage you actually need most people are surprised to see how much money they have wasted in the past and how much they can save going forward.

But when you are out of work and without a paycheck, even the employer subsidized COBRA premium can be beyond reach.

Danna Walker of Humble, Texas lost her job at DHL and along with it her health insurance. The bi-weekly unemployment check of $688 is not enough to cover the family’s COBRA premium of $1360 ($467 after the COBRA subsidy).

Like many others, the Walkers live on a knife’s edge of risk. Without insurance to cover her high blood pressure or his diabetes, they defer doctors’ visits when possible and obtain their prescriptions – nine between the two of them – for $4 apiece at Wal-Mart.

But their primary concern has been finding insurance for Jake, who, after four operations, two stem cell transplants and round after grueling round of chemotherapy, has been cancer-free for a year.

He continues to face a significant threat of recurrence and requires regular monitoring for at least two years. His twice-a-year CT scans cost $3,000 each, and quarterly blood tests and X-rays run more than $1,000.

When you lose your job and COBRA is an option, each family member has COBRA rights independent of the other. It is rare that all family members would face insurability options, and when possible, the healthy ones should be separated from those who need coverage from the group insurance plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Just when you thought it was safe . . . the land shark is at your door.

So you thought the Porkulus Bill and the ARRA (American Recovery and Redundancy Act) was a good deal for those who opt for COBRA, right? After all, your employer is required to pay 65% of your COBRA premium for up to 9 months so life should be good.

Not so fast Sparky.

By any chance did you have a Flex (FSA) plan in place for your group health insurance? If so, there may be a gotcha.

According to the folks at Conexis, this little goody is buried in the law according to a recent release from your friends at the U.S. Treasury.

COBRA premium reduction is available for any group health plan EXCEPT . . . vision only, dental only, mini-med plans, and . . . those administered under Section 106(c) as part of a flex spending plan. (See the bottom of page 3 and top of page 4 of the linked document).

Having fun?

I knew you were.

Washington’s idea of a stimulus package seems to be springing leaks. They want to spend taxpayer money to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

So why are they buying condoms from China?

the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world.

But not anymore.

They will still be handing out condoms, just not ones made in the United States.

In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

Outsourcing condoms. What is the world coming to?

“Of course, we considered how many U.S. jobs would be affected by this move,” said a USAID official who spoke on the condition that he would not be named. But he said the reasons for the change included lower prices (2 cents versus more than 5 cents for U.S.-made condoms) and the fact that Congress dropped “buy American language” in a recent appropriations bill.

Makes you wonder how effective is a 2 cent condom?

Or a nickel one for that matter.

Besides, he said, the sole U.S. supplier — an Alabama company called Alatech — had previous delivery problems under the program.

Delivery problems. Probably a joke in there somewhere but this is serious business.

It’s clear that Alatech’s problems over the years, which apparently have been resolved, may have driven U.S. officials to seek much less expensive foreign-made condoms in the first place.

But that’s cold comfort to Fannie Thomas, who has been making AIDS-preventing condoms in southeastern Alabama for nearly 40 years in the small town of Eufaula.

When the company loses this contract the plant will have no choice but to shut down, putting some 300 people, including Fannie Thomas, out of work.

Many residents in Georgia are losing their job and their health insurance. Sometimes COBRA is an option, sometimes not. There are many low cost alternatives available including short term medical, high deductible catastrophic health insurance as well as traditional health insurance plans.

Insurance giant Aetna released a report which is a poor reflection on our ability as agents to get the word out about Georgia health insurance plans.

With unemployment exceeding 8%, thousands are finding themselves out of work and (apparently) no clue about their health insurance options.

The survey found that 69 percent of consumers had never heard of individual health insurance plans or did not know much about them. While general awareness of COBRA plans was higher, 38 percent of respondents said they expected to pay the same premiums as when they were employed.

Some of the blame can lie at the feet of employers who rarely do enough to educate their workforce on the value of health insurance benefits. But I find it almost incredulous that 69% have never heard of individual insurance plans. Read the rest of this entry »

LBJ conceived the Great Society to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.

George H. W. Bush created the No Child Left Behind to provide quality basic education to all children.

Obama is promising there will be No Patients Left Behind as part of his master plan to save the USA from economic collapse.

We still have poverty, racial inequity and students in public schools are still failing. So will the Spendulus Bill with promises to end inequity in health care and provide universal coverage succeed? Will there be No Patients Left Behind?

Let’s see what Cassandra Kelsey has to say about that.

Cassandra lost her job with Verizon in January.

Kelsey walks with a cane and lists a litany of ailments, including degenerative arthritis and hypertension. For her, going without health insurance is unthinkable.

COBRA became law in 1986 and provided, among other things, a way for employees to continue their group insurance plan for up to 18 months (in most cases), providing them a way to bridge over to their next job with benefits. For the last 22+ years employees have had an option to assure they would not be without health insurance after leaving their job. So how many have prepared for that situation?

Very few.

Outside a District of Columbia career center on a recent morning, Kelsey clutched copies of her COBRA invoice, clippings from a newspaper about the stimulus bill, and a form letter she received from the White House after writing to President Obama.

Kelsey knew about the reduced premium and said it would bring her COBRA costs below $200 a month. But when she called her benefits department, she was distressed to learn that she would not be able to get the reduced cost immediately, probably not until May.

“I can’t take advantage of it now, which I think is totally unfair,”

Unfair? As much as I empathize with Ms. Kelsey I fail to see how this burdensome new program from the O.G.M. (Office of Government Meddling) is unfair.

As part of the Spendulus Bill, employers are now required to subsidize 65% of the COBRA premiums for severed employees for up to 9 months. Supposedly they will get a credit against future payroll taxes to offset this cost but the program has only been in the air for a few weeks and already some employers are considering dropping their group coverage as a way of avoiding the financial burden of paying for benefits for laid off employees.

A $25 billion provision in the stimulus plan aimed to cut COBRA’s price tag, reducing its cost 65 percent for workers laid off as far back as Sept. 1.

That’s $25 billion out of $787 billion to spendulate the economy. If Congress really wanted to help those out of work you would think they would allocate more to COBRA subsidies and find a way to make it less onerous for employers who are already struggling.

Instead, Congress deems it better to spend $1 million on Mormon Crickets in Utah, a total of $41.5 million to renovate libraries for 3 dead presidents, and another $1.8 million for Swine Odor and Manure management.

In the big scheme of things, when you are talking about spending billions of taxpayer money, allocating $300,000 for GoGirlGo is not a lot of money. But somehow I don’t think Ms. Kelsey will agree that it is better to support mormon cricket research and pig farts is more noble than helping out people who are unemployed.

The Comprehensive Reapportionment and Assistance Package (CRAP) otherwise known as the Spendulus Bill contains COBRA enhancements we have already posted.

We are still researching for additional information and found this at USA Today.

Employees who left voluntarily or retired are still eligible for COBRA, but not the subsidy, says Kathryn Bakich, senior vice president and head of the health care compliance practice at Segal Co.

Another comment of interest is this.

Laid-off employees who didn’t sign up for COBRA when they lost their jobs will have 60 days to enroll. Those who signed up and have been paying full premiums won’t get a rebate, but their payments will drop in March.

We also found this summary from Marketwire.

Clearly there are more questions than answers. Any time you deal with the government that is pretty much par for the course.

Washington works in strange ways, if you can say it works at all. One part of the recent legislation, which no one read before voting on, provides subsidies for COBRA.

Or does it?

We found several resources that have their take on the subsidy. Of course, like anything else having to do with new rules, the devil is in the details.

Problem is, we don’t have any details yet.

But here goes.

The folks at Fox Rothchild, Attorney’s at law, offered this perspective.

the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law today. It is going to create some change to COBRA administration that require some attention very soon. It provides for a 65% employer paid subsidy for COBRA premiums for 9 months.

An employer paid subsidy. That’s an interesting wrinkle, especially since the ex-employee normally makes the election and is responsible for paying the premium.

The subsidy applies to those who suffered an involuntary loss of coverage between September 1, 2008, through December 31, 2009. But the Act does not specify what it will consider an involuntary loss, and it also provides that all qualified beneficiaries, regardless of the reason for their qualifying event, must get the notice. Employers and plan sponsors should go back to September 1, 2008, and review records to determine everyone (including dependents) who had a qualifying event and confirm that these individuals will get notice. This can be for voluntary or involuntary termination or reduction of hours, but it also applies to those made eligible as a result of divorce, death or aging out of coverage. They may not get the subsidy, but you must be prepared to send them the notice.

This is like watching sausage being made.

You not only don’t know what is going in, but what is coming out either.

The Act includes a retroactive provision that allows those who were eligible for COBRA and did not elect. It creates a window for them to now elect continuation coverage retroactive back to the first date of the qualifying event subsequent to September 1, 2008.

So what if someone bought coverage other than COBRA? Can they drop it and pick up COBRA going forward?

Or say they did nothing, but had a major claim in the interim. Can they elect COBRA retroactively and expect COBRA (and the taxpayer subsidy of course) to cover the claim?

Recognizing that now there is an added cost to reductions in force that equates to paying 65% of COBRA premiums, employers must consider this added expense when considering the cost benefit of a reduction in payroll. Not all eligible employees will elect COBRA because of the subsidy, but it can reasonably be anticipated that more will than would without the subsidy. If you are in the process of reducing the workforce, affected employees should be advised that the subsidy is available, but application of the subsidy will not be finalized until the close of the transition period.

OK, so the employer is laying off employees to save money. After the RIF, say half decide to opt for COBRA. Since this is an employer subsidy, the employer must pay their share, collect the balance from the ex-employee, and then ask the government for a refund of their share.

Or something like that.

Regardless of the mechanics, the RIF was to save money, but the COBRA SNAFU might create cash flow issues for the employer, leading to more lay offs, creating more COBRA elections, which creates more cash flow issues, leading to more . . . .

Confused?

I know I am.