advertisement
-
Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
- read more
Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
- read more
mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
- read more
- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
-
One of hardest parts of switching jobs is the gap in insurance coverage. Between my two jobs, there were 31 days of no coverage. I could have paid for the Cobra insurance to cover us for the month, but I decided not to. I had 45-days to sign up for coverage that would be retroactive so I risked it.
I must say it was scary. It was the first time in my adult life I didn’t have insurance for longer than a few days.
I would have sign up for Cobra if something happened, but Cobra is expensive and I didn’t really want to dip into my savings account if I didn’t have to. Even with the “reduced rate” thanks to the stimulus money, we were still going to have to pay over $400 for the Cobra insurance. It would have been over $700 without the ARRA funding.
Wow. Expensive. I don’t want to start an insurance debate here, but I do wonder why it is SO expensive.
One of my friends is currently going through a divorce and she will be taken off her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s insurance in the next few months. I asked her what she is going to do. Her current employer does not offer health benefits. Ouch.
She doesn’t really know what she is going to do yet. She hasn’t looked at insurance premiums yet – she’s scared to. I can empathize! Looking at my Cobra insurance rates for one month and I would be scared too!
$400 a month on insurance is a budget bomb. It’s more than a car payment and pretty hard to swallow for most budgets. I spend about $200 a month on insurance, but it’s taken out by my employer so it doesn’t seem to hurt as bad as if I had to write the check myself. (I realize how dumb that sounds…)
My insurance became active on May 1 and I must say that I did a happy-dance. I was relieved and appreciative to see the email come across my phone.
Do you self-insure? Any suggestions on buying your own insurance or making your insurance costs work within a budget?
Until our firm's merger last year, I was paying over $800/month for health insurance. It's not just small companies and the self-employed who get gouged!Our family has been blessed with the Union Plumbers insurance...(Local 8 health and wellfare plan or something like that) it's really good insurance and we don't pay anything... it's part of the benefits of being in a Union. I guess you could say we pay for it somehow, but it's not off the check, it's part of a "package" when you enter the Union...No, I know others get gouged too...it is just one of many FUN aspects to small biz owners... besides the taxes that make life grand!! It really blows. Sometimes I think it would be cheaper to just pay for our injuries as they occur :)Sugar Mama- If you really think it would be cheaper to "pay for the injuries as they occur" then buy a high deductible/ catastophic coverage plan. You'll have much lower premiums and just pay more as you go but major illnesses and accidents are still covered. Use the money saved on lower premiums to pay for the small stuff.In the couple of times my husband has been without a job, we bought a catastrophic policy from State Farm, which has the insurance coverage on our house and cars. It was fairly inexpensive, but it was just to cover him at the time, since I had insurance through my job. I've never priced individual policies from the companies, but I thought that Blue Cross and Assurant both had inexpensive policies available.I have a private policy. It's pretty much just as expensive for me to have mine as it is to add me to DH's. Plus, I hate switching doctors.I think you should feel fortunate that you have the option of buying insurance through your employer. Just think how you'd feel if you were one of the millions of working Americans who don't qualify for Medicaid but who can't afford the premiums on the employer-sponsored insurance. Those are the folks who will benefit from the current health-insurance reform. I think they deserve the help.700.00 cobra insurance isn't bad. My last hell hold I worked at the regular health plan was 925 a month but it was a small company. The cobra from my "Wonder Job" of 13 years was 600 a month. And from experience, go with whatever your job offers in coverage don't do it yourself. the deductibles will screw you.
May 2013 Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Tagstoddler (21)
thoughts (20)
first time mom (13)
advice (10)
mom (7)
worries (7)
rant (6)
career (5)
retail (5)
boy (4)
daycare (4)
discipline (4)
fatty (4)
food (4)
moving (4)
pregnancy (4)
story (4)
stress (4)
baby (3)
birth (3)
birthday (3)
cat (3)
christmas (3)
concern (3)
disney (3)
emergency (3)
family (3)
kids (3)
mothers day (3)
pregnant (3)
sick (3)
son (3)
toddlers (3)
widow (3)
working (3)
almitra (2)
anger (2)
asthma (2)
autism (2)
bathroom (2)
big (2)
biracial (2)
car (2)
car trip (2)
choice (2)
crawling (2)
daddy (2)
first (2)
friends (2)
fun (2)
grandparents (2)
holiday shopping (2)
horror stories (2)
job (2)
laughing (2)
lovely (2)
milk (2)
mmr (2)
new job (2)
night out (2)
poop (2)
road trip (2)
room (2)
school (2)
schools (2)
spending (2)
teething (2)
toys (2)
travel (2)
vote (2)
wedding (2)
whine (2)
work (2)
18 (1)
alter (1)
amber (1)
american (1)
angry (1)
anyone (1)
aunts (1)
babies (1)
back (1)
bath (1)
becoming your mom (1)
bed (1)
behavior (1)
beyonce (1)
big love (1)
bilingual (1)
bills (1)
birthdays (1)
black friday (1)
blog (1)
blood (1)
boys (1)
bragging (1)
breaking (1)
budget (1)
cable (1)
cable company (1)
cancer (1)
candy (1)
car seat (1)
challenge (1)
child safety (1)
chirstmas (1)
chores (1)
clawson (1)
cleaning (1)
community (1)
cookbooks (1)
cooking (1)
cosleeping (1)
cousins (1)
crap (1)
cravings (1)
croup (1)
crying (1)
culture (1)
cynical (1)
dad (1)
date (1)
debt (1)
dentist (1)
dh (1)
diaper changing (1)
diet (1)
disaster (1)
dishwasher (1)
divorce (1)
doctor (1)
doctors (1)
dog (1)
drama (1)
drinking (1)
drive-in (1)
driving (1)
easter (1)
eating (1)
ebt (1)
economy (1)
elections (1)
elf (1)
entertaining (1)
er (1)
exercise (1)
expensive (1)
facebook (1)
fairy tales (1)
faith (1)
fat (1)
fears (1)
federal (1)
first birthday (1)
first day (1)
flight (1)
flu (1)
formula (1)
from (1)
frustrated (1)
frustration (1)
funding (1)
fundraiser (1)
fundraisers (1)
furlough (1)
future (1)
games (1)
garage sales (1)
gear (1)
gift (1)
girls (1)
give (1)
golden girls (1)
government (1)
growing up (1)
guest (1)
guilt (1)
guns (1)
hair (1)
hair cut (1)
halloween (1)
hater (1)
hatred (1)
hbo (1)
healthcare (1)
help (1)
hero (1)
hippy (1)
hoax (1)
home (1)
homeopathic (1)
homework (1)
hormone (1)
horror (1)
house project (1)
husband (1)
idol chit chat (1)
imdb (1)
infant clothes (1)
insurance (1)
internet (1)
interracial (1)
iphone (1)
issues (1)
jealous (1)
job loss (1)
jobs (1)
junk (1)
kc (1)
king (1)
labor (1)
late (1)
laundry (1)
learning spanish (1)
lets (1)
lets move (1)
list (1)
local (1)
locks of love (1)
long distance (1)
m2m meet-up (1)
magazines (1)
marriage (1)
mcdonald (1)
memories (1)
michael jackson (1)
milwaukee (1)
mistakes (1)
moms day (1)
move (1)
movies (1)
multiple kids (1)
multiple moms (1)
names (1)
natural (1)
nerd (1)
new friends (1)
new house (1)
new mom (1)
newborn (1)
night (1)
nighttime (1)
obese (1)
obesity (1)
obsession (1)
octomom (1)
opinion (1)
organic (1)
organic milk (1)
parenting (1)
parents as teachers (1)
park (1)
parties (1)
party (1)
pet (1)
peter pan (1)
phase (1)
phone (1)
pictures (1)
pixar (1)
plan (1)
playgroup (1)
politics (1)
poll (1)
potty (1)
pre-teen (1)
pregancy (1)
prepare (1)
preparedness (1)
presents (1)
pride (1)
priorities (1)
public service (1)
raw milk (1)
real estate (1)
reality check (1)
relationships (1)
restaurant (1)
returing to work (1)
ronald (1)
safety (1)
sahm (1)
sayings (1)
scary (1)
school district (1)
second (1)
second baby (1)
sex (1)
shelf (1)
shooter (1)
shower (1)
sickness (1)
side (1)
silly (1)
sleeping (1)
sleeping through the nigh (1)
sleepless (1)
sleepovers (1)
soap box (1)
soft (1)
soul (1)
spanish (1)
spongebob (1)
strollers (1)
summer (1)
tantrums (1)
taxes (1)
temper tantrums (1)
terminal (1)
terror (1)
texting (1)
thankful (1)
thanks (1)
things (1)
three (1)
time (1)
tips (1)
tooth (1)
tornado (1)
toy story (1)
trisomy (1)
tv (1)
uncles (1)
vacation (1)
vaccinations (1)
vaccines (1)
valentine (1)
vampire (1)
vegetarian (1)
veteran (1)
video (1)
villan (1)
visit (1)
vocabulary (1)
weather (1)
wills (1)
wondering (1)
working moms (1)
yo gabba=gabba (1)
young (1)
zombie (1)