Health Insurance Post-Graduation, Pre-Job

kedinik

I graduated a few months ago and I get booted from my father's family plan at the end of August.

I've heard that under COBRA I can pay a few hundred dollars a month to stay on the plan for up to 18 months, but I have had no luck finding any useful information about this by calling government officials or searching online.

Does COBRA really offer this? If not, are there any particularly good individual insurance plans I should look into, or a group plan for self-employed workers that I might qualify for?

ResidentSleepwalker

Kedinik,

I sell health insurance for a living.

If you're interested in chatting - shoot me an email at maximumbandit@gmail.com

EggyToast

What you most likely want is "temporary health insurance" or "short term health insurance," which you pay month-to-month and covers, essentially, emergencies. It's not good if you have a chronic health problem and need to get regular checkups, and I doubt there's a prescription drug plan with it, but it's the kind of insurance you want if you're planning on getting a new job and just need something to fill in the gap, "just in case."

Erandus

Yes, COBRA really offers that. This FAQ says that when you lose your dependent status (i.e. your parents no longer claim you on their taxes), you are eligible for a COBRA extension of benefits.

The downside is that you pay the full premium. Normally, employers pay a major chunk of health care premiums. Personally, our family's coverage costs somewhere around 800 dollars a month, but after our employer pays a chunk of it, we're only on the hook for about 200. With COBRA coverage, your premium is entirely your responsibility, so the bill goes way up. As a single payer you probably wouldn't be looking at 800, probably more like 3-400.

I would take Eggy's advice and call some local insurance companies and schedule a meeting to go look over their short term insurance plans. Unless you are a generally unhealthy person and regularly take prescription drugs, what you're mostly interested in is catastrophic coverage. You don't need a tiny co-pay and prescription drug plan to cover yourself for a few months to a year, those things will just make your premium go up.

Deebaser

kedinik wrote: »

I graduated a few months ago and I get booted from my father's family plan at the end of August.

I've heard that under COBRA I can pay a few hundred dollars a month to stay on the plan for up to 18 months, but I have had no luck finding any useful information about this by calling government officials or searching online.

Does COBRA really offer this? If not, are there any particularly good individual insurance plans I should look into, or a group plan for self-employed workers that I might qualify for?

- Your father needs to contact his HR department. COBRA isn't exactly a government agency. You will have to fill out an enrollment form and either pay your Dad's employer or their broker directly. As mentioned earlier, this could be very expensive depending on your current coverage.

- Insurance companies / plans / benefits / costs vary greatly between states. If you care about your current doctor, call his office and tell them you're looking for coverage, and you wanna know what Dr. Awesome takes.