COBRA insurance is such a fucking scam

[TZ]

I have been paying $360 a month for the priveledge of keeping my decent health insurance from my last perm job that I left last December. Well in the year I have been doing it my old company has changed carriers of COBRA twice and both times, I have gotten lost..ie my health carrier considers me not covered. The first time was bad enough because I didn't know where to send my payments. This time I have been sending my fucking payments in, yet since the end of Sept (when the carrier switched) I have been considered "not covered". Yet LAST month I got my prescription meds no fuss at all. Yet this month United Health Care says I am not covered?!
On top of that I have a chronic disease and I have an appointment with my hematologist on Tuesday. I can't afford to go if I don'thave insurance. AAAGH! I know that I have to get in touch with my old employer but I was not happy shelling out $230 that I did not expect when I am on a tight monetary budget at the moment...
I think insurance companies are blood sucking leeches and incompetant to boot.

[GOPisEvil]

1. I went through that too.

I sent in premiums to a former employer only to have my claim denied. I made a few calls and wrote some letters and it got resolved, but still. How hard is it to keep up with someone making payments?

Hope you get it resolved.

[dembotoz]

2. why do you think they call it cobra

bites like a snake

and yet those asshole republicans bring it up as a reason we do not need univeral health care.
damn them all to hell.

[Xipe Totec]

6. Cobra is also a Spanish word meaning "charge for it"

It's a double insult.

[mzteris]

3. that particuar thing isn't the insurance company's fault

it's probably your insurance administrator. Probably someone in your HR department who dropped the ball. They're the ones who give the new insurance company the names of the insured.

Call THEM. And they should handle ALL the phone calls, etc to get you reinstated ASAP. They (should) have specific contacts that handle the corporate account that will get things done without all the bs.

[Wapsie B]

5. Gee? An HR droid who drops the ball?

It's a wonder any of those people are skilled enough to keep a roof over their heads. No sense of urgency at all. Whatever power has been given an HR dept. needs to be taken away. They don't even shuffle the paperwork well enough at times, let alone have the wherewithall to actually screen applicants for technical positions.

[mzteris]

8. ahem -

I'm a former HR Manager. . .

and I can assure you that *I* did not function in that manner. Ever.

If your HR people suck it's just because *THEY* suck. It's not necessarily true that all HR personnel does a crappy job.

[JTG of the PRB]

4. I'm on COBRA at the moment too.

$362 a month for basic medical and dental. Bleh.

I get my 90-day review at my new job at the beginning of December. Hopefully at that time I'll get to hop onto the coverage at my new job and stop paying through the nose.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Yeah, COBRA is only better than trying to finding individual coverage

which will never be at as good a price for the same coverage under COBRA.

One more reason that we need a saner health care delivery system in this country.