Callie

So since AH was fired in July our insurance stopped. I have been doing COBRA - I just got a bill today for $5000 for 3 months worth of coverage. August - October. I have been keeping the Cobra because ds has an eye condition that could possibly require surgery. I didn't want his surgery to be a pre-existing condition if I picked up a different coverage.

AH is still sick from withdrawal and is trying to get his resume' together. He's found a few jobs that he wants to apply for that make very good $. BUT insurance doesn't kick in until 30 days after employment.

Does anyone know ANYTHING that I can do other than Cobra for the meantime? Any kind of temp insurance, state aid anything? I'm sure my income would be over the limit for any kind of govt. aid. But I'm just not wanting to fork out the price of a small car for 3 months worth of insurance.

AH has said to just not pay it and let it fall back on him. If I do that, he'll be socked with about $9k worth of bills from rehab, er visits etc. AH has a call into unemployment to see if they know of anything. Thanks for reading and thanks for your input.

hello-kitty

I think it would be great if your husband took responsibility to find solutions to his own problems the he created by himself. That's real recovery!

Don't do for others what they can do for themselves, right?

But if your looking for insurance for your kids, lots of companies have less expensive programs. Just go to their websites. I'm not sure what's in your area. I found basic coverage for my son for about $160 a month, and I could have covered 3 or 4 kids for the same price!

dixied

callie,
there is a website where you can type in your basic info and they will compare insurance policies and the cost. I did this for my daughter who recently graduated from college and was looking for employment, which she later found with benefits. Anyway I got her a basic policy with a high deductible from a major company and it was $61.00 per month. PM me if you want additional info. my best, dixied

Callie

Thanks guys - I guess I should have clarified - I AM looking for insurance for myself and kids. I'm not doing this for AH it's for the kids and I. I do have to make sure AH has insurance though while we're still M. Obviously if something happens to him they'll come back on ME if they can't get it from him. I found a few places online to check quotes. AH is actually the one who is doing the calling though as I don't have time right now.

Callie

BTW - for anyone else in my situation, I found that you can get short term coverage for about 1/10 of the cost of Cobra.

cece

I went through something similar. It was a while back though. But at the time i was shocked at how much COBRA was. I looked into it and found out it would cost more than what my employer was paying. ( what the heck!) On a whim I called Kaiser which was my health care provider and found out they had a plan that was specifically for people who had Kaiser through their employer but lost coverage for whatever reason. It was 1/3 the cost COBRA would have cost me to stay on Kaiser. they explained that it was cheaper in the long run for them. People who lose health insurance for a long period of time and then return to Kaiser tended to have bigger problems and higher hospital costs then if they had stayed with Kaiser and got good preventive care. So you might want to call the health care provider you had under your old insurance, especially if it was an HMO and see if they offer something similar.