My experience transitioning to Cobra

[Romer]

I had retired in March, but was able to remain active part time using vacation to keep Health Insurance until August. That was done in appreciation for my working with them on my date and transition.

I did the math and would earn no subsidies for ACA. What is on the ACA is close in cost, but not as a good a policy. Your research may have turned up something different for you based on where you live and how much money you made this year.

We had the best level policy through work with lower deductibles and out of pocket limits. We had already reached our deductible and close to out of pocket.

To not start over, I had two choices; Retiree Medical- $2100/m or 2) Cobra $1647/m. These two options would just continue the same policy. I was surprised that Cobra is $500/m less than Retiree medical.

My coverage ended on August 12th and on the 25th I contacted the Cobra administrator who told me my election package was being printed and would go out on Monday (29th) she told me I could go online on Monday (before receiving it), create an account and make my payments. That would save the time for the mail and any return correspondence.

The key here is they have 7-10 Business days to get your Insurance reactivated

My Health Insurance was reactivated on Sept 6th.

After two days I noticed my Prescription coverage wasn't active so I called Caremark. I had the best Customer Service experience I ever had. She got my employer on the line, the Cobra Administrator and even tried to expedite it within caremark. We both came to the conclusion that the Cobra Administrator had forgotten to notify them as she saw the notification while we were in our hour call trying to find out what happened

My Prescription went active on 9/10

The key message is to contact your Cobra Administrator if you don't you haven't heard anything after two weeks. Go on-line as soon as possible to make your election and PAYMENT. Then track your insurance to make sure it goes active and call if it doesn't

Hopefully this gives some one an idea what to expect and what they can do

My insurance is back on with the same Health cards and earnings towards Deductible/Out of pocket

Come January we will evaluate all options, but I can continue on Cobra through 2023.

 

[Koolau]

One of my benefits at "full retirement" was keeping my medical at a special rate. So about a month after retirement, Megacorp sent a notice that my insurance had been cancelled. Whaaa?! I called them and it was a glitch, fortunately. They got w*rking on it an got it fixed so that I was never without coverage. BUT that initial shock of getting communication by mail of cancellation was a real shock to the system.

 

[SecondAttempt]

I had retired in March, but was able to remain active part time using vacation to keep Health Insurance until August. That was done in appreciation for my working with them on my date and transition.

I did the math and would earn no subsidies for ACA. What is on the ACA is close in cost, but not as a good a policy. Your research may have turned up something different for you based on where you live and how much money you made this year...

Thank you for your post. My retirement date is a little over 1.5 years out in May 2024. That means I will have significant income to make me ineligible for ACA in that year and maybe the next. Your post reminds be that I need to sharpen my pencil and maybe retire a few months earlier to qualify for ACA rather than COBRA. Fortunately my preliminary estimates don't show a huge difference. But I think I need to think more actively about my last 20 months.