How Getting Laid Off Effects your Health Insurance Quote
Each day that passes we feel the recession more. We see more friends being laid off and even more being short-listed for “voluntary retrenchment”. Research by the government has indicated that some 2 million workers have already lost their jobs in the light of the previous credit crunch and the recession fall-out. The government estimates that another 4 million workers will lose their jobs before the economy makes a turn for the better. In view of these terrible stats, it’s only normal for people to get anxious about their future.
The first thing that people worry about when they lose their jobs is the loss of an income stream. For most employees this is the only income stream they have and as such they have to live on their savings. Another important thing that they worry about is the loss of health insurance coverage. Most employees are think that they will immediately lose their job based health insurance should they be fired but this simply isn’t the case anymore.
There is a legislation called the COBRA law which for all intents and purposes was a law that was passed to ensure that employees would not go without their health coverage even if they were fired or retrenched. COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. The law states that assuming you are employed full-time by your employer and are back by employment papers that any health insurance coverage that you had when you were employed can be brought over to a private contract that you can continue paying for.
Most people would immediately think that this is a good thing, that they can continue their health insurance coverage for their entire family even if they are laid off. On the surface of it, it is a good thing however when the issue of cost comes into the equation then it becomes a bit complicated. Health insurance coverage that has been enabled by COBRA is almost always more expensive when compared to the ones that you can obtain from outside private health insurance quotes. You will have to pay for your employers portion, some government tax, administration fees and also your half of the contribution. It isn’t rare to find that you end up paying 2-3 times more than you did when you were employed.
With the inflated costs of COBRA enabled health insurance, it is not a matter if you want to get another health insurance quote but most times it is actually a necessity for long get survival. There are however an extra ordinary number of people that simply choose to persist with their COBRA enabled health insurance as if they were afraid that if they got a quote from another health insurance provider that their current policy will expire or something. It is vitally important to realize that you have absolutely free choice when it comes to which health insurance you want to use. It is your responsibility to find one that is affordable yet offers the right coverage for you.
There is no harm in getting another health insurance quote from another provider. There is no point in you accepting coverage that is simply too expensive for you. You must take the effort to drill down your health policy to each coverage item and see the actual costs of that coverage in comparison to the one that you receive from your new quote. You have to compare apples with apples in order to get the real determination of which coverage better suits your needs.
It is important to understand why the job provided health insurance is more expensive compared to quotes received from outside health insurance providers. Job provided health insurance is normally very comprehensive. It covers almost every single coverage item as it is a blanket coverage for all the company’s employees, male, female, young and old. At the very least you must make an effort to trim off the access coverage that you don’t need if you intend to keep your COBRA enabled coverage. There will be many coverage items that simply don’t apply to you. Keeping those coverage items will be a severe waste of money.
Overall, we suggest that there isn’t much point in stressing over health insurance if you think that there might be a possibility that you’d be laid-off. Ultimately there are laws in place that will effectively guarantee that you will still be covered with health insurance. The problem will be the lack of income and also the cost of the health insurance. It is at this stage that shopping around for health insurance quotes become very vital. You must find that health insurance policy that provides the best coverage at the best prices.
Information relating to health insurance quotes and anything relating to health insurance, please visit us at http://www.health-insurance.be.
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