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Nope, absolutely not. The $4k is obvi not a small amount of $, but it is when you compare what the loss would be if you needed care. I'd look into an exchange plan instead of COBRA.
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I would try to purchase an individual plan with a high deductible to cover you in case something happens. I did this (pre obamacare) and it was worth it for peace of mind. I would also talk with your pediatrician about the cost of paying out of pocket for vaccinations. We had an insurance issue when LO1 was two months old and they sent us a bill for $1000 when our insurance denied the claim.
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When we were in a similar situation, we got a very no frills, basic catastrophic plan for the two-month period. I don't exactly remember the process, but we just Googled short-term medical insurance, I think. We went with one of the standard healthcare companies,.
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Echoing the info about the retroactive period for COBRA, we took advantage of this at one point, although it was only for 30 days. I would probably look into your state's program to insure children and try to get LO covered and just roll the dice for myself and DH in your position.
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I would not go without health insurance. I'm too paranoid something horrific would happen during the gap period.
I'd see what the cost of getting a catastrophic plan on the exchange would be (and making sure you could easily cancel it after a couple of months) and compare that to the price of COBRA.
Other bees have given great advice about how to sit on the COBRA paperwork and submit it only if needed.
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I know it's a lot of money...but I probably wouldn't. I've had to deal with some health issues and needed one night in the hospital...my bill is almost $17k. Yes, everything could be totally fine but you never know.
You'll also have to pay a fine when you guys do your taxes. It won't be more than you'll pay in COBRA though.
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If it were just us, yes, we'd go without. But not with LO. We'd figure out how to pay for it. That is a lot of money though! I'm sorry.
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My last job wouldn't let me get on their insurance for a couple months after I started so my son and I signed up for short term health care on ehealthinsurance.com and it was only about $150/month. It had a high deductible but provided piece of mind in case of a catastrophe and bridged the gap until my new insurance started. My prior company's cobra insurance was also cost prohibitive so this seemed like a way to make thinks work without risk.
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@josina: OP would be without insurance for 2 months. Per Obamacare, there is a tax penalty if you don't have insurance for 3 months or over. Anything under 3 months and you are fine. No penalties. **I work for a CPA who does personal and corporate tax. This came up many time this season!**
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@MrsBrewer: oh that's awesome that there would be no fine.
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The way it worked for us is we had 30 days to decide if we needed cobra. Basically if you read the fine print we had 30 days after the expiration of our insurance to activate cobra. We had exactly a 30 day gap in coverage so we never activated cobra but knew we could if we needed to. I spill okay that and then maybe get a 30 day policy through afflack ?
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@MrsBrewer: haha glad to hear about this 3mo rule! We let DH and LO's coverage lapse for 1 month until his new job kicked in, and I didn't investigate to see what penality was #rulebreaker
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Thank you everyone for your suggestions! Looks like we have a lot to think about and different options to consider.
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@simplyfelicity: i apologize as I haven't read the whole post BUT you don't need to decide on cobra now. If you get in an accident or something major you can retrospective sign up and they have to cover you! You would be responsible to pay the back fees, but obviously that would be cheaper in the case of true medical emergency. Talk to your husbands old HR they should outline that for you. When I went through this several years ago I forwent insurance and "risked" it without penalty.
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@simplyfelicity: Can you get coverage through your employer? Its a qualifying event so you could flip to your plan. Then the new employment is another qualifying event where you could flip plans again.
eta: nevermind, I missed where you said you cant get coverage.
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No, I have had to use my insurance too much in the past few years.
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I wouldn't fear going without for myself. But I would for DH or my girls. I don't want to be put in the position of wanting to take LO to urgent care and money playing into the decision.
My DH also has health concerns and 2 years back when I was unemployed (I carry or health insurance) he was having heart palpitations and checked himself into the hospital. He stayed one night but the bill would've set us into serious debt.I would check into ObamaCare right now with your one income and see what you qualify for just to get you thru the next two months.
I forgot to recertify my older ones healthcare. She will have one month lapse and we're putting her on my company plan. It's doubling our premium but she is a klutz and they get sick often.
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Go through the exchange or an insurance broker. You can pick a no-frills plan since you only need it for 2 months. That's what we planned to do when my husband switched jobs. Then it turned out that his employer sponsored coverage was more expensive than our exchange plan, (we found this out before his old coverage expired), so I selected a silver plan from the exchange that still saved us money.
Eta: in the past two months my daughter needed a gash on her head glued and my son needed two stitches. Without insurance, The ER bill for my daughter would have been $1800 and my sons ER bill was about $6k!!
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@oliviaoblivia: this. Both my brother and I have done this when we had a lapse of less than 60 days. You can even have paperwork filled out and ready to mail if anything catastrophic happens.
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I haven't read the other comments but I was unemployed for three months and go myself catastrophic coverage (basically car crashes/extreme cases). I paid $100/mth so $300 total...it was through blue cross. After the 3 mia I cancelled when my employer sponsored one caught up...blue cross actually wrote me s check for $150 since I did not use it. I needed it for peace of mind - plus I took a 10 day hiking trip in that span so it was smart to have coverage!
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@LBee: I meant to respond earlier but he's going to daycare this summer and the daycare never really asks for his updated shot record. I have a feeling she would ask for it eventually. I *really* wish the doctor would just let us go the day before.
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I wouldn't. When DH lost his job in February, we immediately switched to my insurance because it was an option. Considering that we used my husband's insurance up until the last day with an ER visit, it made sense to us. With kids, I just wouldn't risk not having any coverage. When I was in graduate school and a gap time of coverage from parents to working, we did a catastrophe plan to get through.
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@simplyfelicity: I think that they ask for updated shot records at birthdays or other well visits. We've got our youngest 1 year appointment coming up. I ask for the updated form to give to the daycare. Sometimes, they forget.
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@simplyfelicity: Can you do the well-visit the day before and come back a few days later for the shots? How much are the shots separately from the well-visit?
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Congrats to your DH on the new job! I dealt with this last fall in between leaving my job & getting our exchange plan set up for my LO & I (DH's plan was too expensive to add us). I found the exchange extraordinarily clumsy & was on the phone a half dozen times arguing for coverage to start when my employer's coverage ended, despite doing everything I was supposed to, on the first day I was able. It did coincide with open enrollment beginning, and so they blamed it on a huge influx of applications for coverage, but in the process we were not sure if we were covered for a month & it was nerve wracking for me. LO's 6mo well visit fell during that time & an unexpected hospital out-patient service for me. We were billed for both before learning we would ultimately be covered, so I went through both Dr's offices to set up payment plans and then ultimately they rebilled everything to our insurance. Long story short, I would recommend going the Cobra option as it may be a smoother process for short-term coverage, especially if you don't end up needing it. Good luck!
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@avivoca: that's a good idea! We even can get kids vaccines through our county health services for $8 a piece so that would be another option
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The other thing to consider is there is a penalty now for going without health coverage. Each person that goes without gets penalized. I've heard different responses on whether there is 3 month lapse before the penalty kicks in or not. Best to talk to your accountant about that first too and factor that in.
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I would. Probably not the smartest decision but I'd probably risk it if it it was such a short time. I had a 2 month gap between graduating grad school and getting a job. My husband and has a couple short gaps here and there. Yes, of course something big and bad could happen, but chances are low.
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@regberadaisy: It's 3 months, so we would be ok.
http://obamacarefacts.com/questions/how-long-can-i-go-without-coverage-each-year/
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@avivoca: That's a great idea, I can check!
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We did what @oliviaoblivia: suggested, we had a two month lapse, and COBRA had a grace period for pretty much the same amount of time. We had paperwork ready to go just in case and could have submitted and still cancelled. It turned out to be fine- we did have to wait on some autism diagnostics for our oldest, but luckily that was the worst that happened for us.
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@simplyfelicity: we just took our lo to the doctor for a visit and it was $80 (we pay our of pocket in our high deductible plan.) I would suggest calling and asking cost of the visit, plus vaccinations. It won't be much. Certainly less than 2 months insurance costs.
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I would skip the cobra, but get catastrophic coverage for those two months.
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