Job offerI got a job offer that I really like the position. My problem is that this company waiting period to enroll on its health insurance is 60 days. I have to small children that I need to have health insurance in case something comes up. If I enroll in my current company health insurance through cobra, I will have to pay more than $1000 per month out of my own pocket. I don't enjoy my current position because it is not challenging to my ability. I sometime get frustrate for getting bored at my current job. Is this a good offer? Is there anyway you can negotiate on this kind of thing? Usually the entry date to enroll is not negotiable. there is an option. It can take 3 to 4 weeks sometimes to recieve your COBRA paperwork and you have 60 days to elect or opt out of coverage. When you get the paperwork just hold on to it and don' t do anything. If you have to go to the Dr before your new coverage begins you will have to pay out of pocket. If it is something minor it may only cost you a couple of hundred $$. If something major (god forbid) happens in that 60 day periond you fill out the COBRA paperwork and send them a check, you are then retroactively coverd to the day your insurance stopped. Most company health insurance policies cover the employee for 30 days after their departure or at least until the end of the current month. So, if you plan ahead correctly, you' re only running the risk of a major health problem for about 30 days. Depending on your personal situation, which is none of our business, that' s either a risk you' re willing to take or your not. At worst, you might have to sign up for COBRA for 30 days. It' s a risk, clearly. Whether it' s a risk worth taking has to be up to you. If the company will not negotiate on the enrollment date, you could ask if they would pay your cobra or a percentage of it until you would be covered by their health plan. Either just wait out the 30 days, and if nothing happens, you're ok. I don't think you'll be hit with a "lapse in coverage" that might make you responsible for pre-existing conditions. If something does happen and it's less than the COBRA premium, pay it out of pocket--still cheaper than paying that amount. If it's going to be more than that you can pay the premium and get coverage. But, there's another, very good option, and that is to take temporary coverage through one of the low-premium, high-deductible plans. You can get a very basic policy for like, $200/month, maybe less, a good one for around $300/month or so, and I would even recommend keeping that policy rather than taking your employer's, for a short period of time until you know whether the job is going to work out or not. This protects you if anything expensive happens before you're covered at your new job, and you won't have to pay that outrageous COBRA premium! Many insurers offer these plans; we carried a policy through American Medical Security for years in lieu of employer-provided insurance because neither of us was eligible for employer-provided insurance. We, of course, chose a higher level of coverage than one would take as a temporary measure, but it ended up being a very good policy. When we eventually were covered through my husband's employer, his premiums were more, and we discovered we were paying just as much out of pocket that way as when we were self insured.... | |
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