Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
XP COBRA question
DH started a new job on 9/6, so since 9/30 we have not had any benefits. Since you have at least 90 days to enroll in Cobra,we have been waiting to see if we needed it. If anything were to happen, we could always enroll after and it would be covered. It is $1,000 a month for the 3 of us so we of course wanted to avoid this. We only had to take DS to the doctors once and paid the $300 out of pocket. His work benefits will not kick in on 11/1 as originally expected, and my work will not offer benefits until 1/2012. For the month of December we will not have any health insurance or the option to enroll if God forbid anything were to happen. Now, we have to enroll in Cobra. My question is, does anyone know if we will have to pay the back months, October and November? As if $1,000 during the holidays will not be killer enough, I do not know how we are going to shell out $3,000.
Re: XP COBRA question
You have to pay the back months. At least you do under my company's insurance plan. I am the COBRA administrator for the plan, so I'm sure about this for my company, but I'm unsure if that's a general COBRA rule, or something that would be found in the summary plan description.
You may want to see what the grace period is for your first payment. Usually it's something like 45 days, so you'd have an extra 45 days (which would take you into January) before you actually had to pay for the coverage. If you didn't need to use the coverage, then you could just not pay, and it's like you were never covered.
I know the above will work for my company's plan, but again, you'd need to check with your own plan and your own state laws as some state's have different/additional COBRA guidelines.
You can see more about the specific deadlines here: http://www.cobrainsurance.com/COBRA_FAQ.htm#What are the Premium Payment Deadlines regarding COBRA coverage?
But, you will need to pay for all the months that you would be covered for. Since COBRA coverage is backdated you will need to pay premiums for all months.
Hooly is right. COBRA is retro back to the first day available if you choose to elect it so you will have to pay for it. You can't not have it for one month but pick it up for the next.
You might want to check you local Blue Cross plan or Assurant or another insurance company for a monthly individual/family policy. It will likely be cheaper than COBRA.