Who should have Health Insurance?

27 Mar

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: Health Insurance

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Everyone regardless of his or her current age, disability or income needs medical insurance. Medical insurance does not just pay for medical emergencies but covers the cost of regular checkups often required as we age. Health insurance can cover the cost of routine doctor visits, hearing test, vaccinations, vision test and dental cleanings. Health plans can also be combined with dental and vision plans, to cover the cost of eyeglasses, expensive dental surgeries and life saving surgeries.

Though many individuals often worry about the cost of insurance, it will actually reduce the amount of money that will have to be paid out of pocket when visiting a doctor’s office. A single visit to a doctor can cost upwards of a hundred dollars with visits to a specialist usually costing twice as much. With a health insurance plan, members would likely pay a fixed dollar amount at a fraction of the price.

Health plans are also necessary for those taking prescription medications. Most individuals who take prescription medications take several at a time and the monthly cost without a health insurance plan can be severe. For example, to lower cholesterol physicians commonly prescribe Lipitor. The average retail price for Lipitor is around $70. Some other commonly prescribed medications can cost twice as much.

Health insurance plans offer different services and options to make them more affordable. Employed individuals can often sign up for health care through their jobs and plans can cover spouses and children. Those with low income can often take advantage of government sponsored programs created for those with limited funds. For example, Medicaid is sponsored by funds from states and the federal government to offer medical insurance for individuals and families with low incomes. Medicare is a federal government health insurance plan that covers senior citizens. Consumers can choose to sign up directly through a health insurance provider. Health plans also exist for those who are self-employed and many trade groups and associations offer insurance to members.

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Posted in: Health,Insurance,should

When to Elect COBRA

18 Mar

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: COBRA Health Insurance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

In today’s economy, more and more individuals are being confronted with a decision to enact their COBRA Health Insurance benefit. In an economic climate filled with rising unemployment, loss of income due to loss of work hours and employment transition, this important decision is impacting more and more individuals and families.

Qualified employees, their spouses and dependents who have undergone a COBRA qualifying event need to reach this decision within 60 days after the event has occurred. These events usually mean a time of change has arrived. This is not a time to be without health insurance. Indeed, this is a time to get good advice and make sure all COBRA benefits and procedures are properly explained. COBRA qualified beneficiaries should contact COBRA professionals at the COBRA Help Center to discuss the advantages, policies and steps needed to maintain health insurance.

For an employee, a qualifying event is the voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for any reason other than gross misconduct. Reduction in working hours is also considered a qualifying event for employees.

For spouses, qualifying events are the voluntary or involuntary loss of the employee’s employment, a reduction in work hours, divorce or legal separation from the policyholder, death of the policyholder and the policyholder’s eligibility for Medicare.

For dependent children, a change in the dependent status under the guidelines of the health insurance plan, the voluntary or involuntary loss of employment by the policy holder, a reduction in work hours for the policyholder, a divorce or legal separation for the policyholder, the death of the policyholder or the policyholder’s enactment of Medicare benefits are all qualifying events for COBRA Health Insurance.

Contact Cobra Help Center today and put your mind at rest. Health insurance with pre-existing condition coverage is available and COBRA may very well be the solution you and your family needs.

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Posted in: COBRA,Elect

How to Keep a Low Cost Health Insurance Plan

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

You parents have been telling it to you since you were young, “You cant believe everything you hear.” No where is that more true then when it comes to health care. Finding health insurance that is high quality and low cost is possible for those who want to take the time and effort to understand what they want. The only way you can know what you want is to have the right information and knowing your options.

If you have just lost your job, going on COBRA can keep you continuously insured and you wont have to worry about pre-existing health conditions. (Look around this blog, there is plenty on COBRA)

The easiest and most effective way to lower your insurance costs is to live healthier. People who are overweight or eat unhealthily will always end up paying more in insurance because of the risk that person is to the insurance carrier. Those people whose cholesterol is lower and have a proper weight will pay much less and live a better life as well.

Shop around! Never go with the first carrier you see on T.V. or a friend recommends. Contact a qualified insurance broker who can look at all your options and suggest the proper course of action.

DO NOT LAPSE YOUR COVERAGE. This is the biggest mistake a person can make when it comes to health insurance. If you stop paying your health insurance or drop your coverage for any amount of time, you may become uninsurable. Conditions as small as a gall stone can make you uninsurable for a year or even a lifetime.

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Posted in: Health,Insurance

How is Medical Insurance Underwritten?

18 Mar

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: Health Insurance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

Medical insurance underwriting is a formal process through which major medical insurance companies evaluate the risk of possible financial loss if coverage is extended to a single individual or group.

There are several risk factors that medical insurance companies may consider in their underwriting criteria for individuals such as age, health status and history, occupation, hobbies, risky behaviors, and lifestyle. If you are applying for individual coverage, the insurance company will often require you to fill out an application that will be reviewed by the underwriter. In addition to giving identification information such as your name, address and Social Security number, you will probably be required to answer questions about your past and current medical history, weight, hobbies, and habits such as smoking and drinking on an individual coverage application.

Individual underwriting typically does not take place in the same way for those enrolled in group coverage, such as that through an employer, union, or association. If you will be covered under a group policy, you will be asked to fill out a short application that includes your name, address, Social Security number and any dependents that will also be covered. The insurance underwriter will consider the number of people covered on the policy and the type of work being performed as underwriting guidelines. Often, individuals joining an insured group must serve a probationary period before becoming eligible for coverage and then they can enroll during the eligibility period; often call “Open Season.”

If you have medical insurance through your employer, you have the advantage of being eligible for COBRA coverage should your employment end voluntarily or otherwise, provided your employer has 20 or more employees. COBRA is an acronym that stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which is a law passed by Congress in 1986 to help eligible employees keep their medical insurance up to 18 months after a job loss or when transitioning between jobs. If you decide to keep your major medical insurance coverage through COBRA, you will be responsible for paying the full group coverage rate and any administrative fees but you will not be subject to individual underwriting. You will receive a booklet from your employer that explains what COBRA coverage provides, your eligibility period, and sign up information should you choose to continue coverage.

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Posted in: Insurance,Medical,Underwritten

What is COBRA Health Insurance?

21 Mar

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: COBRA Health Insurance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

COBRA is not a Health Insurance Plan unto its self. COBRA is the right you have, as a former employee to a company with 20 or more other employees, to continue your medical insurance for as long as 18 months (or more in certain conditions). The former employee is allowed to keep this coverage with a no pre-existing conditions waiver, which is key for those with very expensive diseases such as cancer, diabetes or others.

The catch? You must pay for this coverage at 100% of its cost. Those on COBRA pay the premium from their own pockets. Cobra is some cases though can be less then individual health coverage. Those who have ANY pre-existing conditions though, this is definitely the best option, as while you are on COBRA these conditions will still be covered at the rate they were while you were employed.

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Posted in: COBRA,Health,Insurance

How do I become Eligiable for COBRA?

14 Apr

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: COBRA Health Insurance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

Worried your not eligible for COBRA? Finding out is vitally important to maintaining your continued health insurance. To be entitled to COBRA continuation, you must have been enrolled in the company’s health plan, and a active member of the policy, before your employment was terminated. The policy must also still be provided to all still employed employees. Next, a qualifying event must have occurred that would make your eligible for COBRA. In short, you must have been fired, laid off, quit, or for some reason lost benefits, but it can not be due to “gross misconduct”.

To recap, as long as you meet a simple two criteria, you are eligible for COBRA:

Were, while working, enrolled in or were eligible for the company’s health planStopped receiving benefits due to any qualifying event.

That’s it!

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Posted in: become,COBRA,Eligiable

Same-Sex Couples and Right to COBRA

25 Sep

Posted by: Cobra Help Center in: COBRA Health Insurance

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on all new posts and information. If your COBRA is within 63 days of expiring, your ability to get guaranteed major medical insurance is running out! Contact Cobra Help Center today!

A state that formally recognizes a same-sex marriage as legitimate, such as Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, may have to provide COBRA for spouses who had a “qualifying event”. A state that also provides mini-COBRA alternatively to COBRA must also provide such a right to a same-sex couple as long as they live and work in state that recognizes the marriage.

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Posted in: COBRA,Couples,Right,SameSex