Today's topic is insurance...so I'm not sure if this will be as humorous as my usual fodder of cancer, job loss and heart attacks. Somehow I'll try to tie it all together.
I had made an out-of-state consultation for my prostate cancer treatment and was prepared to travel there next week... (my choice for treatment and my reasons for rejecting other possible treatments will make nice, juicy topics for future posts)... Today I got caught in the Catch-22 of the government and the insurance industry. I lost a battle but there is a silver lining. The clinic I was visiting called my health insurance company to get approval for my possible treatment. They were told that I was terminated effective March 31st and I had no coverage. Now of course I plan on extending my coverage with COBRA, but the paperwork is not complete. Just where the hell is my COBRA paperwork? It should have been here by now, but no.
After several chats with friendly customer service ladies I learned that no COBRA paperwork has gone out in the last week due to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. (The Stimulus package, of course!)....
By the way I can navigate through the United Healthcare automated menu in about 8 seconds and get to an actual person...here is how you do it with voice commands:
1) No!
2) Operator!
3) Benefits!
4) Medical!
5) No!
Number 5 above is optional....you will reach a person just as fast by saying "Yes!" but you'll be agreeing to take a short survey at the end of your call. So what does the Stimulus plan have to do with me not receiving COBRA paperwork? Everything. Turns out that if you were (or you are planning to be) laid off between last September 1st and this coming December 31st, the Stimulus will pay 65% of your COBRA premium for up to 9 months. Sweet! How many times have I said, "Where's MY freaking stimulus check?" And now that I have joined the involuntarily terminated I'm gonna get my very own. Hey, don't hate me...somehow I've managed to make roughly 230 consecutive, on-time mortgage payments in my life... so up until right now I've been a part of the solution. Now I'm gonna be a part of the problem for a few months. Okay?
I guess that this 65% thing has not been working so well...the payments are just not getting made and the involuntarily terminated have been picking up 100% of their premiums the past couple months. So the past week has been the week that COBRA is catching up to the stimulus requirements....and that means that my paperwork has not yet arrived....and that means that my cancer treatment consultation cannot happen next week as planned. I was a little pissed for a while...but I managed to push the consultation back 3 weeks...and I managed to move my flights around (get this, I actually SAVED $150 by changing my flights!) And I figure that by the time my first COBRA premium comes due, the system will be working.
What I learned today is as follows: The stimulus plan will pay nearly 2/3 of my health insurance for a bit (HR doesn't tell you that when you get cut loose...if you know someone that may qualify, pass it along) And I also learned that if you book a trip on Travelocity you can cancel it WITHOUT a penalty if you act soon enough.
Yes. We. Can.
No comments:
Post a Comment