Health insurance is for the weak.
My wife works for the NYC Department of Education. This means she’s a member of a very powerful and effective union. A union that has enabled us to get pretty much the greatest health care plan in the world. When I got my job at the times, it was a no brainer to realize that I’d just go on her plan.
When we had a baby, with all the complications and somewhat extended hospital stay, it cost us under a $100 total.
Well, because we’ve decided that it’d be better for her to be home with the baby than anything else, the wife is going to be able to keep her job, but be ineligible for her health plan until she returns to work.
No problem, with the greatest health care system in the world, we can all jump over and use the plan offered by my employer.
Except one problem: we can’t.
We can only enroll in the plan at work during a specific window of time, which comes in November. My version of “the greatest healthcare system in the world” works perfectly, as long as you don’t need it before Halloween.So between now and November, we are officially inside a crack in the system. In order to get health care (which, in case you were unaware, is recommended for newborns), we have to sign up for Cobra.
Yes, we have no choice but to enroll in Cobra. The healthcare option so dumb that they decided to name it after one of the most recognizable deadly animals on the planet.
So, whether or not you’re for the public option, help us out. What is our best option now?
IAC offers the ability to change health care plans after life-cycle events such as marriage or child birth. So I’ll be able to add Petra to my plan next year regardless of the window. I’m surprised the NYTimes doesn’t have a similar rule.
However, two guys I hired last year didn’t properly enroll in a health plan during their first month of work and missed some sort of deadline and were therefore required to wait six months until the annual enrollment window came around. IAC HR said that this window thing was actually a Federal Law. I don’t know the details but I trust this HR person and know she wasn’t lying. So… another reason to reform our wacky health care system!!
