the Price of Health Insurance from COBRA

My husband recently changed jobs and his new company has a 60-day waiting period before he can enroll in their health plan. His previous employer's plan was a traditional PPO with the following benefits:

$300 per person deductilbe

$900 family maximum deductible

90/10 coinsurance after deductible to a max out-of-pocket of $1500/ind or $4500/family annually

$25 doc visit co-pays

$75 ER co-pay

Prescription co-pays:

$10 generic for 30 days

$30 preferred name brand for 30 days

$50 non-preferred name brand for 30 days

When my spouse was employed by the plan sponsor, our portion of the monthly premium to cover our family of four was less than $250, which included dental insurance. With COBRA, the employer is not required to pay any portion of the premium and can add a 2% administrative fee to cover their cost for extra processing, so our portion is the entire amount of monthly premium plus 2%. If we elect to continue coverage, it will cost over $1300/month. I'm thankful that we have an option to keep our health insurance, but upset because it's cost-prohibitive to do so. Thank goodness he has another job and will be able to come on their plan in 60 days. We have 45 days to decide if we want the COBRA coverage retroactive to his termination date, so I guess we'll wait and cross our fingers hoping nothing happens between now and then.

Know your company's policy before you give your termination notice. For example, my husband's company continues insurance through the end of the termination month (this is fairly common). They also pay out any unused accrued vacation time on the last check (again, fairly common.) He gave 2-weeks notice and listed his termination date as April 25th, so we kept our insurance through April 30th, and they paid him the 2-weeks vacation on the last check. If he had listed his termination date as May 9th instead of April 25th, he still could have given two-weeks notice (technically 4 weeks) before "using" his vacation time from April 28th through May 9th. This would've given us another month of health insurance at $250 instead of $1300. So, do your research. The cost of health insurance could be a major part of your decision to stay or go, or at least WHEN.