Q Talk

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

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. 

[sashagirl]

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.

[ItsME]

@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.

[Sweet Southern]

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.) 

[alicedee]

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.

[quilter61]

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.   

[chrystaltree]

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.

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

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. 

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

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@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.

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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.

[OKPrincess]

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.