special ❄️snowflake❄️ COBRA question
December 23, 2022 10:12 AM Subscribe
I am sure the answer to this could be derived from other questions but I am so worried, please bear with a potentially basic question.
I have quit my job. The health insurance I carry for my spouse and I will end on 12-31. My husband has insurance through his job, but his HR person couldn't tell us today if it would be possible to get us enrolled by Jan 1 (and now holiday, yada yada, I'll spend all weekend worrying). I am aware of COBRA and the possibilities to enroll in that retrospectively etc. Honestly, I'd be fine with paying a month or two of exorbitant premiums just to avoid a break in coverage, so I'm most worried about how enrolling in COBRA could interfere in our eventual enrollment under my husband's more reasonable premiums.
If we cannot be enrolled in husband's health insurance as of Jan 1, which of the following scenarios work?
1. We can sign up for my COBRA but only pay one month. On Feb 1, his work insurance now covers us so we stop paying COBRA/cancel it.
2. We sign up for COBRA but once we do that, we cannot cancel the COBRA and are 'trapped' on COBRA until my husband's open enrollment period.
3. We can't sign up for COBRA at all, because we are signing the form for my husband's insurance (even though it won't be effective until Feb 1). So then we are definitely not covered in Jan no matter what.
Scenario 1 is the most ideal (unless we can just be enrolled on husband's insurance Jan 1) but I'm worried that #2 or #3 apply. When I search for info, what I find are answers like, if you sign up for COBRA today, you can't go to your spouses workplace next month and try to enroll outside open enrollment. I cannot find an example of our scenario: we are signing up for spouse's insurance today based on our qualifying event, but won't be covered by it for 1 month+ because paperwork.
Bonus points for references :) Thanks in advance for allaying one of the many worries I have after suddenly quitting!
I have quit my job. The health insurance I carry for my spouse and I will end on 12-31. My husband has insurance through his job, but his HR person couldn't tell us today if it would be possible to get us enrolled by Jan 1 (and now holiday, yada yada, I'll spend all weekend worrying). I am aware of COBRA and the possibilities to enroll in that retrospectively etc. Honestly, I'd be fine with paying a month or two of exorbitant premiums just to avoid a break in coverage, so I'm most worried about how enrolling in COBRA could interfere in our eventual enrollment under my husband's more reasonable premiums.
If we cannot be enrolled in husband's health insurance as of Jan 1, which of the following scenarios work?
1. We can sign up for my COBRA but only pay one month. On Feb 1, his work insurance now covers us so we stop paying COBRA/cancel it.
2. We sign up for COBRA but once we do that, we cannot cancel the COBRA and are 'trapped' on COBRA until my husband's open enrollment period.
3. We can't sign up for COBRA at all, because we are signing the form for my husband's insurance (even though it won't be effective until Feb 1). So then we are definitely not covered in Jan no matter what.
Scenario 1 is the most ideal (unless we can just be enrolled on husband's insurance Jan 1) but I'm worried that #2 or #3 apply. When I search for info, what I find are answers like, if you sign up for COBRA today, you can't go to your spouses workplace next month and try to enroll outside open enrollment. I cannot find an example of our scenario: we are signing up for spouse's insurance today based on our qualifying event, but won't be covered by it for 1 month+ because paperwork.
Bonus points for references :) Thanks in advance for allaying one of the many worries I have after suddenly quitting!
Response by poster: Thanks, phunniemee, what you describe also makes sense to me. We're just having trouble getting info from the HR person -- she's very nice but I have the feeling her understanding is not be up to snuff, so that's why I was trying to get independent info. (Is the scenario you describe a requirement somewhere and is there something we could point to if things go sideways later?)
posted by Tandem Affinity at 10:21 AM on December 23, 2022
posted by Tandem Affinity at 10:21 AM on December 23, 2022
What phunniemee said. When I lost my job, I had insurance through the end of the month. My husband put us on his insurance and it was retroactively to the day I lost coverage.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:34 AM on December 23, 2022
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:34 AM on December 23, 2022
Your husband needs to send an email to his HR people that says this:
(And I'll also add, as the HR person at my work who fields this question all the gd time, make absolutely damn ass sure your husband is reading his own shit. There's a big ass box on the employee self service page of our HRIS software that says "BEGIN A LIFE EVENT" that an employee in your situation could complete and do all by themselves. So...like just make sure he's paying attention, because then you won't have to deal with this undersnuffed HR person at all.)
posted by phunniemee at 10:37 AM on December 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
I have been covered by my spouse's employer-sponsored health coverage this year. My spouse is losing their employer-sponsored coverage on Dec 31 2022. I understand this is a qualifying life event that provides me an opportunity to enroll both myself and my spouse on [Husband'sEmployer]'s benefit plans for a coverage effective date of Jan 1 2023. Please let me know the steps required so that I can complete the qualifying event enrollment for an effective date of Jan 1 2023.I know this is dry and repetitive but this way you have communicated 1. exactly the situation that they're required to know, with the relevant dates, 2. that you know what you're allowed to do, and 3. that you are indeed waiting on them to provide the next steps.
(And I'll also add, as the HR person at my work who fields this question all the gd time, make absolutely damn ass sure your husband is reading his own shit. There's a big ass box on the employee self service page of our HRIS software that says "BEGIN A LIFE EVENT" that an employee in your situation could complete and do all by themselves. So...like just make sure he's paying attention, because then you won't have to deal with this undersnuffed HR person at all.)
posted by phunniemee at 10:37 AM on December 23, 2022 [10 favorites]
The other thing to know is that COBRA is retroactive - the usual advice is "have the paperwork done, including payment method, in case you need it in an emergency, but if you've got a short gap and don't expect to need it to cover routine things, don't pay for COBRA unless you need it."
The trick is mostly if you have a necessary appointment or expensive meds that would need a refill, or an emergency, in which case COBRA makes sense for a short gap, but not if you're pretty sure you can sort out the other coverage (or in this case, get an accurate answer.)
posted by jenettsilver at 12:44 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
The trick is mostly if you have a necessary appointment or expensive meds that would need a refill, or an emergency, in which case COBRA makes sense for a short gap, but not if you're pretty sure you can sort out the other coverage (or in this case, get an accurate answer.)
posted by jenettsilver at 12:44 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah you don't need COBRA here. Your husband needs to either do this through HR, or if she's too unclear on the process to be helpful, ask her for the conpany's group number from the insurance company and the contact phone number for members and he should be able to work directly with the carrier.
Tell him to document all communications between him and HR about this. If this goes sideways it will come in handy.
posted by ananci at 2:11 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
Tell him to document all communications between him and HR about this. If this goes sideways it will come in handy.
posted by ananci at 2:11 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Your loss of coverage is your husband's qualifying life event (QLE), and he (plus you as his dependent) should be able to join his employer's plan effective that QLE date. He's required to report/request/provide proof of this within 30 days of the QLE. When coverage is turned on, it should date back to the date of the QLE.
Are you sure you haven't misunderstood the HR person here? That the actual gears that grind your literal enrollment may not happen by January 1, but when everyone's back in the office reading their emails they'll process your enrollment back to the effective date? Please go check that. That's what makes sense.
posted by phunniemee at 10:17 AM on December 23, 2022 [13 favorites]