Health Insurance after being laid off....... (unemployed, deductible, price)

[Thinking-man]

I'm almost 99% sure i know the answer to this question, but before i enroll in obamacare, i wanted to ask and be 100% sure.

So, i was laid off on Friday and i was told by my employer that my insurance will be gone COB of the termination date of 1/12/2018. HR said that some companies extend coverage till the end of the month, but it's company specific and that ours ends on the same day.

Is there any virginia law that states otherwise? just want to be sure the information i received is solid. couldn't find anything online stating it definitively for virginia one way or another.

[ChristineVA]

I believe you have the right to file using COBRA. You pay the full amount of the premium but you use your company's insurance. After that, if you still don't have a job, then you go through the ACA.

[LuvVA]

You can use COBRA, which is usually very expensive as you would have to pay both your's and your ex-employer's contribution.

[Thinking-man]

Originally Posted by LuvVA

You can use COBRA, which is usually very expensive as you would have to pay both your's and your ex-employer's contribution.

An answer to a totally different question, but thanks anyways lol

[emm74]

You could call the insurance commissioner and confirm with them, but unless there is specific state law, yes, they can cancel that day if that's their standard policy to do so.

[Hal Roach]

COBRA is the law. And I don't think a healthy person, no less unemployed, would ever use it, even though it was one of a certain "community oirganizer's" favorite healthcare buzzwords. The policies you can get for up to six months are 1/4 the cost of COBRA, and will give you a much lower deductible than ACA. WWW.EHEALTHINSURANCE.COM

[FCNova]

They can terminate coverage on the employers last day if that's their company policy. No state law compels them to do it a certain way. Just like the insurance either starts the employees first day or the 1st day of the next month. Generally if it starts on the employees first day it will also terminate on their last day. If their coverage doesn't begin until the 1st day of next month it will continue to the end of their last month.

[dkf747]

I wonder one thing. What are the dates your premium covers you? First of each month to the end of the month, or is the coverage period different from that? I would expect some money back if there was half a month left that I paid for. If you did Cobra, that would be applied to the premium for that, I would think.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

COBRA is the law. And I don't think a healthy person, no less unemployed, would ever use it, even though it was one of a certain "community oirganizer's" favorite healthcare buzzwords. The policies you can get for up to six months are 1/4 the cost of COBRA, and will give you a much lower deductible than ACA. WWW.EHEALTHINSURANCE.COM

While COBRA is pricey, it allows the person to keep the same insurance/deductibles, etc that they've had. Depending on where in the insurance year you have this happen, it makes sense to use COBRA. Getting a new policy under the ACA might be cheaper, premium wise (and I say "might") but you would be subject to new deductibles, possibly new doctors, etc.

Most people I know go the COBRA route for the short time between jobs.

[Hal Roach]

Notice I said "healthy.". Yes, if you are in the middle of an expensive deal, then it might be better. I pay about five bucks per day, when I visit the US...same type of policy you would get for a relative visiting from abroad. I believe it was Aetna with a 1000 dollar deductible. And since it is the beginning of the year, the OP may have paid nothing so far towards deductible. ACA could bite you in the are if you didn't make enough for the subsidy.

I just dug out my last policy. Agent is www.insubuy.com in Texas, licensed in VA. I am early 50s. 250,000 coverage...a bunch of add-ons, 500 deductible...80/20 up to 5000, then 100%..so max out of pocket would be 1400. That was 5.50 per day.