A non-profit firm with 57 employees phoned me on August 1st with this situation:

A new employee had started with them on April 16th, which means he would be eligible for their health insurance on August 1st (it begins the 1st of the month following 90 days of employment).  On July 20th, he was involved in an auto accident.  Although he can do some work, he won't be able to perform the duties of his job for about 6 months and the firm has no "light duty" option (they should for workers comp purposes, but haven't).

The questions posed to me were, "Is he eligible for COBRA coverage and, if so, how do we get him on the plan if he is not presently working.  He's on a medical leave right now."

He is single, in his early 20s, and has no other source of income.

I side-stepped the two questions and asked two of my own, "If he goes on COBRA, will the firm pay for his insurance?"  The answer was, "No."  "Would he even be able to pay for the COBRA coverage?"  The answer, "Probably not."

My suggestion was to forget COBRA.  Why not lay him off and since he can do other work, have him apply for both unemployment compensation and health insurance though the new MA Health Connector program?  With minimal income, he might even qualify for free insurance and not have to go through the qualifying process for Mass Health, which uses means tested criteria.

My reasoning was there would be no way he would have paid the COBRA premium.  This way he has health insurance and some income (unemployment) rather than having the cost for COBRA coverage eating up a substantial chunk of that income.

The result?  A happy client that was able to present a solution rather than a financial challenge which probably meant the employee would have had no insurance.  As this is being written (September 1st), the employee now has both health insurance and income  and hopes to have a new job with another company beginning on September 17th.

And guess what?  It only took "3700 years" to come up with this happy outcome.

If you want to control your health insurance costs, we can help.

Want More Info? ... Russ Swallow ... 508-831-0805
(or use e-mail address below)