topic Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips in Q Talk

Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Happiness Is Inside JOB — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:30:47 GMT

Well, Hubby job is closing after 35 years. We don't have a date yet but it will be before the end of the year (August/Sept/Oct/Nov). I called the benefits office today to inquire about COBRA. The cost to continue his current plan will be 935.00 per month.

I will begin carrying him on Jan 1 2020. But if we don't get something he will have NO Coverage from 1 month after the closing. So for example, the job closes August 1, he has coverage until Sept 1 but the prescription card ends the day it closes.

I don't think no having any coverage is an "option" at his age. He is early 50's, now if he was 25/30 I'd like differently.

I am going to look into an individual plan to compare prices. If you have any suggesstions or tips, I'd love to hear your comments.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

sashagirl — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:38:35 GMT

I advise to check with your benefits office. You should be able to add him onto your policy outside of nornal open enrollment in this situation. I assume 1/1/20 is the start of you new plan year.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

ItsME — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:44:10 GMT

@Happiness Is Inside JOB I agree with @sashagirl . If that doesn't pan out, check into the affordable care act (Obama Care). I think there are open enrollment periods when someone loses a job.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Sweet Southern — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:49:45 GMT

Like the previous commenter said, check with your HR/Benefits dept. You should be able to add him to your plan prior to open enrollment since he will loose his coverage. (Qualifying Life Event). Be sure when checking the private insurance options you compare the benefits and not just the cost. (My husband and I went through the same thing at the end of last year.)

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

alicedee — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:50:26 GMT

If you have health insurance, you should be able to add your husband right away when his current job/insurance is done.....you don't have to wait for the enrollment period if it's considered a "life change" event.

Call YOUR insurance office and explain what's happening, and ask if you can add hubby to your policy as soon as his job is done, and how much it will cost.

Good luck...it stinks when a job ends like that before you planned for it to happen.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

quilter61 — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:58:41 GMT

I worked in HR for years and what previous posters stated, you can add you husband to your insurance since his company is closing. This is considered a qualifying event. Just make sure that you do it within 30 days of his losing coverage or you will need to wait until your open enrollment period. Your HR department will probably need something in writing that shows the date he is losing coverage.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

chrystaltree — Tue, 21 May 2019 20:28:30 GMT

You are talking about no coverage for 4 months; from Sept through Dec. when you add him to your policy. The 50's are relatively young assuming he has not chronic illnesses. You should contact his Benefits office but generally when a business closes or lays off workers, they hold meetings and provide information regarding health insurance, unemployment etc etc. All of that is pending the official date of the closing.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Happiness Is Inside JOB — Tue, 21 May 2019 22:38:37 GMT

THANK YOU

I did check after writing my post and you are ALL RIGHT>.....

Currently I am enrolled as self only. If I want to add my husband to my plando I need to do anything during the Federal Benefits Open Season or can that occur anytime?If he loses his job; do I need to wait until then to add him to my plan?

You may change your FEHB enrollment to self and family to cover your husband during the Federal Benefits Open Season or if you experience a qualifying life event.

One of the qualifying life events would be ifyour spouse loses health insurance. As mentioned in question #1 above, you should be aware that if you have a self only enrollment, your spouse and/or children would not have any FEHB coverage to continue in the event of your death.

For FEDVIP, the qualifying life event is if a spouse/eligible family member loses other dental or vision coverage. Losing one’s job is not a QLE for FEDVIP.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Happiness Is Inside JOB — Tue, 21 May 2019 22:51:11 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
You are talking about no coverage for 4 months; from Sept through Dec. when you add him to your policy. The 50's are relatively young assuming he has not chronic illnesses. You should contact his Benefits office but generally when a business closes or lays off workers, they hold meetings and provide information regarding health insurance, unemployment etc etc. All of that is pending the official date of the closing.

The closing is getting nasty. We are outside of DC and the employer was not saying anything. Employees found out on the NEWS that the stores were closing. SO....the employees starting talking to the media.

Then the Employer sent a global announcement for employees to NOT talk to the media. But they are not giving much informatin except the 42 plus stores are closing, they hope to sell the location to other businesses, they can not guarantee that all stores will be replaced by XYZ chain.

But the pharmacy section of the stores closed and the schedule was posted in the newspaper but my husband said employees did not KNOW. I'm not there so I can only take his word.

Our local newstation that helps people with problems was contacted by some employees and on the news they said that the "employer" would not return their calls.

Question:

When my husband is off on Thursday, I was going to have us call his benefits office to inquire about retirement.

Would it not be to his advantage to retire before the store closes?

I want to hear your comments.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

OKPrincess — Tue, 21 May 2019 23:02:48 GMT

DH and I retired at 62 so we used COBRA for 18 mos at $1100/mo. We were able to keep our same coverage but pay what the company paid plus our part.

Be careful if using Obamacare and being subsidized. The agent gave us a great policy with the government picking up most of the cost.

What the agent didn’t empathize was that we needed to keep our income under poverty level which is computed $16,240 x %. The number may be different according to your state. My example is we should have stayed under $64,960 and didn’t. Our % that year was 401 which was too much income.

DH and I had to repay $7,000 for those four months.

Last year we worked with our tax person and kept our % to 392 and we got a refund. This is found on the worksheet if you get a subsidy.

I probably confused you but I didn’t know anything about any of this until tax time.

We are both on Medicare now so it doesn’t matter about our income.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Happiness Is Inside JOB — Tue, 21 May 2019 23:17:08 GMT

Thank you, I had no idea of the issues under COBRA. Luckily, I will be able to add my husband to my insurance as a life event.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

missy1 — Wed, 22 May 2019 00:22:48 GMT

It's a qualifying event, so no waiting period on your insurance or the marketplace.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

VaBelle35 — Wed, 22 May 2019 01:31:39 GMT

@Happiness Is Inside JOB wrote:
Well, Hubby job is closing after 35 years. We don't have a date yet but it will be before the end of the year (August/Sept/Oct/Nov). I called the benefits office today to inquire about COBRA. The cost to continue his current plan will be 935.00 per month.

I will begin carrying him on Jan 1 2020. But if we don't get something he will have NO Coverage from 1 month after the closing. So for example, the job closes August 1, he has coverage until Sept 1 but the prescription card ends the day it closes.

I don't think no having any coverage is an "option" at his age. He is early 50's, now if he was 25/30 I'd like differently.

I am going to look into an individual plan to compare prices. If you have any suggesstions or tips, I'd love to hear your comments.

You husband's job loss is considered a "Life Event." You may need something to prove his job loss. Typically his insurance company will automatically send you a "Proof of Loss of Coverage" that you would give to your benefits office and then you can add him to your insurance plan.

Typically in a severance package the company pays for a certain period of time for coverage at the active employee rate. This is usually tied into years of service.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

VaBelle35 — Wed, 22 May 2019 01:33:30 GMT

@Happiness Is Inside JOB wrote:
@chrystaltree wrote:
You are talking about no coverage for 4 months; from Sept through Dec. when you add him to your policy. The 50's are relatively young assuming he has not chronic illnesses. You should contact his Benefits office but generally when a business closes or lays off workers, they hold meetings and provide information regarding health insurance, unemployment etc etc. All of that is pending the official date of the closing.
The closing is getting nasty. We are outside of DC and the employer was not saying anything. Employees found out on the NEWS that the stores were closing. SO....the employees starting talking to the media.

Then the Employer sent a global announcement for employees to NOT talk to the media. But they are not giving much informatin except the 42 plus stores are closing, they hope to sell the location to other businesses, they can not guarantee that all stores will be replaced by XYZ chain.

But the pharmacy section of the stores closed and the schedule was posted in the newspaper but my husband said employees did not KNOW. I'm not there so I can only take his word.

Our local newstation that helps people with problems was contacted by some employees and on the news they said that the "employer" would not return their calls.

Question:
When my husband is off on Thursday, I was going to have us call his benefits office to inquire about retirement.

Would it not be to his advantage to retire before the store closes?

I want to hear your comments.

Do not retire first. See what the layoff package is and then decide if you want the package or just retire. You will most likely want the package and then retire after.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

icezeus — Wed, 22 May 2019 01:43:26 GMT

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

icezeus — Wed, 22 May 2019 01:46:37 GMT

@VaBelle35 wrote:
@Happiness Is Inside JOB wrote:
@chrystaltree wrote:
You are talking about no coverage for 4 months; from Sept through Dec. when you add him to your policy. The 50's are relatively young assuming he has not chronic illnesses. You should contact his Benefits office but generally when a business closes or lays off workers, they hold meetings and provide information regarding health insurance, unemployment etc etc. All of that is pending the official date of the closing.
The closing is getting nasty. We are outside of DC and the employer was not saying anything. Employees found out on the NEWS that the stores were closing. SO....the employees starting talking to the media.

Then the Employer sent a global announcement for employees to NOT talk to the media. But they are not giving much informatin except the 42 plus stores are closing, they hope to sell the location to other businesses, they can not guarantee that all stores will be replaced by XYZ chain.

But the pharmacy section of the stores closed and the schedule was posted in the newspaper but my husband said employees did not KNOW. I'm not there so I can only take his word.

Our local newstation that helps people with problems was contacted by some employees and on the news they said that the "employer" would not return their calls.

Question:
When my husband is off on Thursday, I was going to have us call his benefits office to inquire about retirement.

Would it not be to his advantage to retire before the store closes?

I want to hear your comments.

Do not retire first. See what the layoff package is and then decide if you want the package or just retire. You will most likely want the package and then retire after.

@Happiness Is Inside JOB

Please pay attention tot he section that I have bolded above. This is very important for your husband to consider.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

PamfromCT — Wed, 22 May 2019 05:24:13 GMT

I am very sorry to hear what you and your DH are going through. Sadly, this is not uncommon in this country. I could go on forever about this.

I completely agree that your DH should not retire. Play this thing out until the end. Some companies get a bit nervous when they axe older employees - bad publicity and possibility of lawsuits. So they may offer some sort of lay-off package to placate those older folks. Not out of a sense of responsibility,

but to protect themselves.

I wish you you both the best of luck. And if your DH is not ready for retirement, I hope he finds a great new job.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

mimomof4 — Wed, 22 May 2019 12:54:57 GMT

You have received some great advice. As someone who has lost a job due to company moving work overseas and then a few other times because I have taken work as a contractor, my advice is:

Do not make any financial/insurance decisions until you know what type of Severance/buyout will be offered. Typically Those packages include coverage of insurance for a short period of time. Also if you leave the job prior to the official separation, you will not be eligible for the buyout offer.
Watch out for Obama care - it has driven an increase in insurance costs. Any subsidies the government give you will be taxed. To make matters more unfair the question on the tax for only asks IF you used the Affordable health act and does not follow up with how long.
Your DH should start looking for a job NOW.
Do not retire prior to the closing, based on his age companies sometimes offer Early Retirement packages, those would include some healthcare coverage.

Most of all keep the faith, I know its a scary time.

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Happiness Is Inside JOB — Wed, 22 May 2019 23:01:15 GMT

Thank you!!!!

i can always count on my QVC family for great advice!!!

Re: Husband's Job Closing - Any COBRA or Insurance Tips

Teddixat — Thu, 23 May 2019 11:56:29 GMT

@HappinessIsanInside Job. Are you allowed to say the company?