These are difficult economic times, and the past few weeks have seen thousands upon thousands laid off and looking for other employment.
These individuals are now facing a tough decision regarding their families' health care plans: Either drop them or continue under COBRA.
If they choose to continue under COBRA, it means they will be paying the full price for their families' health care plan, albeit at the negotiated group rate.
Even at the negotiated group rate of the former employer, the full cost of the health care plans are a huge burden to bear.
Here are a few tips to help you decide whether it's worth it.
Does any member of your family have an ongoing need for medical care? If anyone in the family is diabetic or suffers from any kind of condition that requires ongoing care, get the COBRA continuation.
It may be expensive, but you will need it to provide coverage for the gap between your last employer and your next one.
If you don't, it will be extremely hard or impossible to cover that member of the family, because the insurance company will treat the condition as a "pre-existing condition" and will either charge you astronomical premiums or just won't cover you at all.
This one is almost a no-brainer.
What if everyone in your family is healthy? This is the tricky part.
You never know when health issues will come up.
If you don't have insurance, you probably won't be able to afford to see the doctor.
If you have kids, you will probably want to continue coverage under COBRA, because nobody wants to put their child's health at risk.
If not, maybe you can get away without it.
So, if you decide to go without the COBRA continuation, here are a few other tips to help you in the mid-term.
If you find yourself with a few weeks of coverage before the plan expires, you may want to get a checkup.
It seems like a good idea now, but you should wait on that.
If you have any tests done, and they reveal that you have a medical condition that requires treatment, those test results will be on the record, and when you are trying to sign up for a new insurance plan under a new employer, you may not be covered.
Again, they will point to your pre-existing condition as the reason.
It may seem counter intuitive to not take advantage of your healthcare plan before it expires, but unless it's a serious matter, try not to take any tests that can hurt your chances of finding affordable health care after the interim period.
Also, you will be surprised to learn that your primary care provider may be willing to negotiate a lower rate for services while you are waiting to get another insurance plan.
Instead of simply avoiding the doctor because the cost would be too high, you should contact their office and ask about temporarily lowering the rate for office visits.
Many doctors will do this because they know just how tough things are for their patients in this economy.