Has ANYONE had a positive experience? I'm now 21 days out from payment (confirmed by email, snail mail, website, etc) and yet my insurance provider has no record. I go from the customer service line of my insurance provider to the "customer service" line of the cobra administrator and can't talk to anyone who knows anything.

This is the most frustrating process i've ever dealt with.

Had similar experience, the 2 seemed totally disconnected. Called each of them and they pointed finger at each other. Ultimately got them both on a call to dig up an email/paperwork so they could get their setup process sorted. This was after I had already been paying a monthly premium to Voya, and still didn't have Healthcare coverage set up with BCBSTX.

Dealing with Obamacare is just as bad. The insurance company and government are never on the same page especially when you need to change coverage. Complete nightmare.

cgh1999 said:

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Has ANYONE had a positive experience? I'm now 21 days out from payment (confirmed by email, snail mail, website, etc) and yet my insurance provider has no record. I go from the customer service line of my insurance provider to the "customer service" line of the cobra administrator and can't talk to anyone who knows anything.

This is the most frustrating process i've ever dealt with.

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I'd reach out to your former employer and have them advocate. They should be able to help the insurance provider and the COBRA vendor connect the dots. There should be a simple integration between them running at least weekly, but... in my experience all COBRA vendors are the suck.

23 days after payment, my coverage is back in place.

Yep it is ridiculous. Had to have a conference call with the Cobra provider and BCBS to get everything sorted out even though they had received payment weeks earlier.

I was laid off a little over a month ago and I'm getting close to having to make a decision on whether to get COBRA or not.

It's about $2400/month for my family...which sucks. You're not collecting a paycheck, and then you have to pay that much a month to insure you family. On top of all your other bills. ( I had only been at my company a year, so not much of a payout upon leaving).

Is there any way around having to pay so much for a family of 4? Oh, and if I decide to move forward, I have to pay for April and May at the same time. Even though we didn't see any sort of doctor in April. So I've gotta cut a $5K check just to get things rolling.

There are short term insurance plans that are much cheaper than Cobra. We had one through United healthcare. They won't cover pre existing conditions but it's a good option to have coverage for something major without forking a ton of money for premiums.

Aust Ag said:

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I was laid off a little over a month ago and I'm getting close to having to make a decision on whether to get COBRA or not.

It's about $2400/month for my family...which sucks. You're not collecting a paycheck, and then you have to pay that much a month to insure you family. On top of all your other bills. ( I had only been at my company a year, so not much of a payout upon leaving).

Is there any way around having to pay so much for a family of 4? Oh, and if I decide to move forward, I have to pay for April and May at the same time. Even though we didn't see any sort of doctor in April. So I've gotta cut a $5K check just to get things rolling.

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Insurance is nothing more than a middle-man that negotiates the price down. It might be a good time to learn some negotiating skills. Carry a small, catastrophic policy and negotiate the rest. Put any doctor visits or trips to the ER on a payment plan if necessary. Familiarize yourself with Good RX for pharma stuff. My wife and I went this route when we were 1099 contract through Covid.

Shop around for a new policy that meets your needs, I was in a similar boat a few months ago and went from a $3k+ per month Cobra policy to one that was around $900/month for a family of 4. Thankfully only needed it for a month before landing a new gig. Good luck landing your next gig.

That's good. Who did you end up using?

Weshare by UHSM

The guy who originally quoted me Lam Lee
lle@weshare.org