Practical Concerns When You're Not Working
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Adding It Up
COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It requires most employers with group health plans to allow terminated employees the opportunity to extend their coverage. To learn more about this program, check out www.cobrainsurance.com on the Internet.
When we're employed, we tend to take insurance that our employers provide for granted. Only when we no longer have the coverage do we fully appreciate it.
If you lose your job, your employer should give you information about how to continue your health coverage through a program called COBRA. COBRA allows you to extend your health care coverage under your former employer's plan after you leave your job. Unfortunately, you'll have to pay for the insurance, but at least you'll be covered.
Be sure to check with the human resources department of your company about continuing coverage for you and your dependents.
Many people get life and disability insurances through their employers, in addition to health coverage. If that's the case for you, you may be able to deal directly with your employer's insurance carrier to extend that coverage. If not, you should talk with an insurance agent about getting life and disability coverage through another carrier.
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Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance in Your 40s and 50s © 2002 by Sarah Young Fisher and Susan Shelly. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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