I'd have to go look at my paperwork, but I thought that the rates folks would be offered under COBRA if they left my employ were actually higher than the premiums I'm paying. And the benefits were less generous.
I wonder whether our high-deductible HSA plan complicates the matter.
sitetest
You do realize that everything you’re citing now is after many of the changes that ObamaCare has brought in?
That only NOW are pre-existing conditions covered that were acquired before the person turned 19?
That I’m talking about what we had BEFORE ObamaCare?
That COBRA and high-risk pools are now better federally subsidized AT THIS TIME?
Everything that I’ve been talking about is from the years of desperate research I’ve been doing to better prepare my son for his life as a chronically ill adult.
Long stretches of unemployment and loss of coverage because he’s too sick to work, but it’s not permanent enough to qualify him for disability. Health insurance that makes you wait months or even years before they’ll cover pre-existing conditions. Adults who can’t get insurance because of a birth defect that was corrected or an illness that they beat as a child.
These are the realities.
So you can do all the research you want, but you won’t be addressing the basic question: “Once we repeal ObamaCare, what are we going to do to address these very real problems? What do we put in it’s place?”
And I’m not even getting into the issue of the single adult man who loses his job, has a heart attack and can’t get coverage once he recovers and tries to get back on his feet.
Do NOT think that I’m arguing for ObamaCare. I think that it’s a horrible plan. But there were problems that have been addressed by it.
To give you an idea of how bad it was in Texas, the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool (for high-risk individuals) has only had 90,000 people enrolled since it’s inception in 1997.
More than 23,000 of those people were added to the rolls IN JUST THE LAST MONTH.
I wonder whether our high-deductible HSA plan complicates the matter.
Under COBRA, someone electing COBRA coverage elects to continue with the group plan and exactly the same plan with the very same benefits, the same deductibles and co-pays, the same provider network, etc. as they had while employed and insured under the group plan. At the time they elect COBRA, they can drop dependents (i.e. if they have EE+spouse coverage, they could elect to take EE only coverage but then the spouse has individual COBRA election rights). Employers and insurers cannot reduce benefits to COBRA participants unless they make changes to the group plan as a whole at renewal and those changes effects all members covered under the group plan. Employers, if they self administer COBRA or third party COBRA administrators if the employer outsources, are allowed to charge a maximum of 2% of the monthly premium as an administrative fee but they cannot charge COBRA participants any more than that – premium + 2%.
For employers who are “self insured” the premium charged to the COBRA participant is the “COBRA equivalent rate” which could be higher than what the employer actually pays per month in admin fees and stop gap insurance but when factoring in claims history, it usually ends up pretty close to what one would pay for the same coverage under COBRA as with a fully insured plan.
Unlike an HRA (which is a whole other ball of wax), when an employee with an HSA terminates, there is no right to COBRA on the HSA. The money in the HSA fund at the time of termination however belongs to the employee. An employee with a HSA can pay COBRA premiums with their HSA funds but this has no bearing on the cost of premiums or on the employer.