Laid off - health insurance

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by fishbones

I believe you have 60 days to elect or decline coverage.

I THINK that they don't require you to pay right away. As you said, you may only have to elect coverage. You'll prob. then get a policy and a bill which you have to pay w/in 30 days. So you have ineffect 90 days b/f you have to come up with $. If you don't have any claims in that period, you don't have to pay for anything. If you did have large claims, you can pay the 3 months you owe and have the ins. cover those claims. I'd read everything 2x to make sure that is the case.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by PaulS

I THINK that they don't require you to pay right away. As you said, you may only have to elect coverage. You'll prob. then get a policy and a bill which you have to pay w/in 30 days. So you have ineffect 90 days b/f you have to come up with $. If you don't have any claims in that period, you don't have to pay for anything. If you did have large claims, you can pay the 3 months you owe and have the ins. cover those claims. I'd read everything 2x to make sure that is the case.

If you don't pay your bill every month you WILL get a notice cancelling your insurance retroactive to the date when you "paid to date". If you had a claim you will have to pay back the money.

It's not like your car ins. where they tell you up front when it will be cancelled.

Go with the Mass Health. They will base your premium on what you earn "collecting". Your premium will be low and your insurance will be first rate.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by buckman

If you don't pay your bill every month you WILL get a notice cancelling your insurance retroactive to the date when you "paid to date". If you had a claim you will have to pay back the money.

The issue is that he has possibly 60 days to "elect" coverage. I think the coverage is then retroactive to the date his company paid coverage terminated (regardless of whether he had any new claims or not). If he elects coverage, he still may have some time b/f his cobra policy will be termed for lack of payment. The ins. company isn't going to process any claims until they are paid. What I meant is that if the coverage is back to the day his company paid coverage ends, he'll know if he incured some claims and if it is worth it to pay for the coverage. He needs to read everything to make sure he doesn't loose coverage if he really wants it.