Insurance help!

[sarasansh]

I find insurance ridiculously confusing. The whole system just makes my brain shut down. So I'm turning to J12 to figure out what I should do.

I'm due 9/13. But my insurance through my current job will end 8/31 because I'm taking a year off. H's open enrollment period begins some time in October and insurance changes go in effect 11/1.

So what is my best plan of action?

H is going to talk to his work and find out if I can get on his plan before the baby comes--if job loss or something else can count as one of the life change situations. If this is an option, is he able to change his plan as well as add me? (We were planning to switch plans during open enrollment anyway.)

Or I do Cobra and pay out of pocket. If I do Cobra, can I cancel at any time?

Seriously, someone demystify insurance for me. I just don't want to have a 60k bill in my name when the baby comes!

[junkytrunk]

Your H should be able to add you because I'm almost 100% sure job loss counts as life change.

Also in terms of Cobra, you should be able to cancel whenever, if you do go that route, because if someone were to get a new job, they would have to cancel the Cobra for the new job insurance.

Maybe we should ask our local HR rep! laurski81

[origamimommy]

Yes, a life changing event includes "job loss". You can be added to your H's to avoid a lapse in coverage.

[laurski81]

Jul 31, 2015 17:03:21 GMT -5 origamimommy said:

Yes, a life changing event includes "job loss". You can be added to your H's to avoid a lapse in coverage.

Yes this you have 30 days to enroll in his plan after your loss of coverage.

[sarasansh]

laurski81 MH went to talk to the HR person at work today and she told us that we couldn't switch the plan we wanted to (HSA high deductible) because we had a childcare flex account and you can't do both. Why is that?

Sub-question, assuming we can get it worked out and get on the high deductible plan, it's a $3000 deductible. They debit $262 monthly from his paycheck until will have 3k in there. But we'll obviously max out the deductible when we go to the hospital mid-September. We also won't have 3k in there yet. Will they just bill us the remainder of the deductible? (2700 or what have you.)

Another sub-question: once we have 3k in there, do we stop paying money into it until we need to re-up our balance? So if we build up 3k into the HSA, and then use $500 the following year for medical expenses, do we only have to pay $500 into it instead of paying $262 each month?

Sorry for all the questions! The HR person from my school is on vacation and H is even worse with this stuff than I am.

[laurski81]

Aug 3, 2015 9:39:50 GMT -5 sarasansh said:

laurski81 MH went to talk to the HR person at work today and she told us that we couldn't switch the plan we wanted to (HSA high deductible) because we had a childcare flex account and you can't do both. Why is that?

Sub-question, assuming we can get it worked out and get on the high deductible plan, it's a $3000 deductible. They debit $262 monthly from his paycheck until will have 3k in there. But we'll obviously max out the deductible when we go to the hospital mid-September. We also won't have 3k in there yet. Will they just bill us the remainder of the deductible? (2700 or what have you.)

Another sub-question: once we have 3k in there, do we stop paying money into it until we need to re-up our balance? So if we build up 3k into the HSA, and then use $500 the following year for medical expenses, do we only have to pay $500 into it instead of paying $262 each month?

Sorry for all the questions! The HR person from my school is on vacation and H is even worse with this stuff than I am.

laurski81 MH went to talk to the HR person at work today and she told us that we couldn't switch the plan we wanted to (HSA high deductible) because we had a childcare flex account and you can't do both. Why is that? 

That is not accurate. You cannot have a traditional FSA (flexible spending account) and an HSA but you can have an HSA and a dependent care flex account.

Sub-question, assuming we can get it worked out and get on the high deductible plan, it's a $3000 deductible. They debit $262 monthly from his paycheck until will have 3k in there. But we'll obviously max out the deductible when we go to the hospital mid-September. We also won't have 3k in there yet. Will they just bill us the remainder of the deductible? (2700 or what have you.)

With an HSA you should get a medical "debit card" that will have all the funds on it.  Then you will get billed by the hospital and you can use your debit card to pay it.  You can elect then to pay whatever you can with the funds in the HSA then and pay the rest out of pocket and get reimbursed by the HSA once those funds are in there or you can ask the hospital to set up a payment plan and explain it is because you will be waiting on all of your HSA funds for the remainder of the year.

Another sub-question: once we have 3k in there, do we stop paying money into it until we need to re-up our balance? So if we build up 3k into the HSA, and then use $500 the following year for medical expenses, do we only have to pay $500 into it instead of paying $262 each month?

You should be able to select how much you want to contribute into the HSA every year during open enrollment and then how much you pay per pay period is debited from your account each pay check for the entire plan year.  So next year if you only wanted to put in $1k you would only be payroll deducted for $1k / number of pay periods in a year.  Now if you had a bunch of medical expenses and went over the $1k it would come out of your pocket until you reached the deductible.  You can elect how much you want to put in every year  up to the IRS max.  You can contribute (with family coverage) up to $6,650 every year and it will roll over year to year and it is your account to keep even if you leave the company.

Sorry for all the questions! The HR person from my school is on vacation and H is even worse with this stuff than I am.

No worries!  I hope that helps!

[sarasansh]

laurski81 Thank you for all your help! I'm seriously just going to move to Canada at this point. All this insurance stuff makes me feel so dumb.