PC? No insurance? I regret that prior to reading this article it was a challenge for me to relate.

Don't think I can comment on the article per se as doing so without getting into politics seems impossible.

I will say that the Health Insurance situation in this country is horrible and that it is a moral issue in my opinion.

Now a member point of view. I am glad that this story, as abysmal as it is, brings attention to the risks one takes with insurance these days. I have often here chided those who insist everyone must have a certain test or go to a certain list of doctors, as if everyone had the resources to do that. Even as a reasonably well insured employee in the scheme of things, I still could not pay for a lot of the things that we would love to see used for every patient. I am battling my insurance company at present for the bone-loss prevention drugs to go along with my HT. I may have to find a way to buy them out-of-pocket. That wouldn't be impossible, but it is just one in a long list of decisions that get made based on money, or lack thereof that month. Multiply that by every test and every treatment, and consider what our lives would be like.

I think it is important to also realize that all insurance policies are not equal. Each one covers what it covers, which is not always what we need.

Mod hat back on - the article is an important wake-up call, but I'm afraid that here, it is either late, or useful more to our non-US members, who will get a picture of what many of us fear worse than cancer when we hear a layoff or "right-sizing" is about to happen in our workplaces.

ed

If your company is sold (as mine has been in the past), they give you a letter for "certifiable coverage", which defines the dates you were covered. A new company should offer you whatever they offer existing employees (that's the catch) at the current group price. If you fail to sign up in the prescribed number of days (my last change was < 60 days), they can treat you like a new hire, with all the pre-exisiting clauses. If you go to a new company (really as a new-hire) within that number of days, you also should be exempt from waiting periods and pre-existing clauses (you have to present the letter, the burden is on you). But all that depends on what the company that picks you up offers.

I don't know if COBRA would apply if your company were purchased, unless you were laid off in the process. As long as there is still an exisiting company (old or new) I would expect COBRA to be available to laid-off employees. It was in our case.

Your HR people should have this sort of transition information available to you.

You should get COBRA if you are terminated as a result of the sale, or if the new owner doesn't provide health insurance.   Or you could still work for the company with a new owner and have a situation similar to now.  Or you could get an improvement if the new owner has a better plan than you now have.   If you know who the new owner will be you could research their current company wnd see what they provide.    COBRA came out if the HIPAA law which provides protection to people when their employment or coverage changes.   Your charge under COBRA is the company cost plus any administrative fee they charge.   You can use COBRA for 18 months, which gives you time to find other coverage individually or with another group through employment.   As the earlier linkstates, so long as you do not have a significant gap in coverage you will not have problems with pre-existing conditions.   Under the current healthcare law the state exchanges and prohibition on underwriting starts in 2014 which protects you as you will have COBRA at least until then based on the information you have provided.

I did not offer any threats. Simply my way of saying political comments will be edited, and could bring the thread to be locked. I think the article is valuable, but it is a risk to have let it even begin. I did that out of deference to Casey, in hopes that it helps those of us who have reasonable insurance understand the plight of those who do not.

The comment stands.

By the way, you violated rule three and guideline nine.