Independent Health Insurance Coverage For California Residents

When people are in between jobs, taking up self-employment or stay without jobs, it is usual for them to experience a great financial strain. When people are laid off, they are left to themselves to find independent health insurance coverage. This article lists some techniques that will help them find a suitable health insurance plan in the private open insurance market.
 
While leaving a company, do not forget to ask your employer for a certificate stating that you were covered by a health insurance plan till a particular date. This is crucially needed for people with pre-existing conditions when they try to buy an independent health insurance plan.

When you leave a job, understand that your employer sponsored insurance cover will stay effective till the end of the month. Make this sure by contacting the HR division of your past employer. They can also give you some valuable input regarding COBRA. They can help you access COBRA benefits for you and your family. In fact, there are legal mandates extending employer sponsored health insurance coverage for up to 18 months when the employee chooses to pay the premiums in full once laid off from the job. Within this period, the employee must find an alternative job coming with health insurance coverage or purchase an independent health insurance plan. Employees who are laid off have two months’ time to apply for COBRA benefits. COBRA form contains information on how to fill it and send it.

When you apply for private health insurance plans, you will be surprised to see that they are expensive when compared with employer sponsored plans since the employer had earlier borne a size able amount of the health insurance premiums and now you are left to yourself to bear the total cost of the premiums. Moreover, the rates of group health insurance premiums are considerably higher than individual plans. In either way, you are going to face the additional burden of higher premiums.  

While buying health insurance plans, assess your financial position as well as health care needs. This will help you decide what kinds of health insurance plans are right for you. If you or your family member has a qualifying medical issue, you can as well check whether subsidized Medicaid program is offered by your state.

There are some unemployment benefits that you can take advantage of. During tough times, you can take assistance of the food stamps program. Also, most food stamps representatives are well informed about Medicaid. At times of financial difficulties, you can make use of the government sponsored COBRA payment reduction program for some situations. For information in this regard, you can contact the U.S. Department of Labor. All those provisions that apply to the conventional COBRA programs hold good for this special provision too. However, know that you will not be able to get any COBRA benefits in case your previous employer went out of business due to bankruptcy.

The crucial importance of health insurance coverage cannot be underestimated. Know that most bankruptcies happen in U.S. on account of huge medical bills forced upon families due to medical emergencies. In fact, most people fear losing jobs on account of simultaneously losing employer sponsored health insurance cover. Therefore, once you give up your job or get laid off, it is high time you think about your health insurance coverage and take the necessary measures to get a new form of health insurance cover before it is too late. This will let you stay at peace. Reacting to a critical situation in life alone is not important, how you react and how quickly you react are all the more important.