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by pasbesoin 3415 days ago
You have a limited timeframe to select health care insurance continuation under COBRA. You should at least explore what the cost would be -- it may be better than what you can find on your own.

Regardless, right now, you may be ok in the following regard, in the short term. But with the ACA on the chopping block, one thing that has been recommended already by... "those in the know" is to make sure you maintain continuity of coverage.

One of the things the ACA has eliminated is exclusion for prior conditions. But that may not survive. And should it not, resulting limitations can apply even if you end up getting insurance through another employer. You might get insurance, but with limitations. In the past, before the ACA, demonstrating continuity of coverage helped avoid such limitations. If/when the ACA dies, this is likely to be pertinent and important, once again.

Ending the ACA means the end of much more than just the marketplace insurance plans and tax rebates. The health care insurance situation in the U.S. is likely to get a whole lot worse, again, even for those who never participated in an ACA health insurance plan.

1 comments

COBRA will also end with the company's health plan, so it won't be available once the company fully closes down.
Hmm. Does it? That seems to be a loophole that would have been covered when COBRA was enacted -- the insurance company still being in business and able to ensure, with payments coming from the insured (or an administrative third party) rather than the employer.

I don't know, so I'm asking. If I were the OP, I'd double-check this point with respect to their state's laws and regulations as well as Federal law and regulation. (Sounds complicated, but probably has a final, simple answer that the local experts know.)

I was surprised as well, but as COBRA allows you to remain under the company's health plan, that option goes away if the health plan goes away, and the plan goes away when the company stops contributing. When my last employer shut down, we had less then a week to find a replacement -- we were paid up to the end of the month, but that was it.