Health Insurance: COBRA and Cal-COBRA Explained. What are Pros and Cons?

hi I'm Michael and this is California and in this time of the lockdown in this time of the pandemic tons of folks are losing their health insurance to their work but they like their health insurance through their work so today we're gonna cover two programs Cobra and Cal Cobra that would allow folks to keep the plans they have through their work even after they're no longer working there so we're gonna cover the pros we're gonna cover the cons when I talk about who's eligible for Cal Cobra and normal Cobra so if you'd like this information if you find interesting you find it useful II find it helpful please

don't forget to Like and subscribe that way you can get updates when our newest and most informative videos become available so first let's talk about what is Cobra so Cobra is an acronym for consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act and essentially what it does is it allows employees to stay with the insurance they had through their work after they separated from their work now Cobra is a federal component of the plan and what it does is it works with companies above 20 employees it allows

an employee once they separate from their work to stay on the health insurance plan they had for 18 up to 36 months now Cal Cobra is the California component and it's for smaller companies so companies between two and nineteen employees which also would allow them to stay on the health insurance after the employee separates from the work up to 36 months now for someone who has both Cobra and Cal Cobra if the Cobra the normal Cobra is only 18 months the Cal Cobra will cover the additional 18 months equally a totality of 36 months

so in short what Cobra does it allows employees to stay on the plan they had with their employer so they can keep the insurance company they can keep the doctor they can keep the benefits and they keep the scheduled procedures they may have in a not so distant future all right so let's go over who is eligible for Cobra who's not eligible for Cobra eligibility is relatively simple because essentially if you had health insurance through your work and you left your work or you're no longer eligible for your work insurance and it wasn't for gross misconduct then you should be eligible for Cobra now the folks who would not be

eligible for Cobra will be people who didn't apply within the 60-day window after you lost your health insurance so when we got let go for Grossman conduct people who have companies that either let go all of their employees and close down or to no longer offers health insurance to any employees at all or folks who became eligible for Medicare would not be eligible for either of the Cobras so finally let's talk about the pros the cons and some alternatives to getting a cobra plan so first let's talk about the cons so the biggest con with

Cobra is the fact that it is expensive and it's not permanent so for example when you normally get health insurance through your work they were required to usually pay at least 50% of the cost so your employer pays 50% and then you pay 50% it could be higher but the minimum 50% once you go on to Cobra then the employer no longer has to contribute their 50% so it leaves you paying potentially 100 percent of the cost now it's also possible that the cost could go up two percent for administration fees so the total cost could be a hub to

a hundred and two percent for the normal Cobra for Cal Cobra it can be up to 110 percent another downside to it is the fact that it's not permanent it lasts up to 36 months which sounds like a long time but it does have an end date so it's not something that you can be on forever so it's expensive and it is not permanent the pluses to it is is it allows you to keep the doctors that you already have it allows you to keep the insurance plan that you have it allows you to keep all those authorizations and any money you've contributed to your out-of-pocket maximum so if you've

already maxed out your plan you've already spent all the amount of money to the point where you're no longer having to cover any of your own cost it may make sense to stay with that plan for the remainder of the year especially if you have ongoing health procedures that you need to have now there are some alternatives to it so for example if you are leaving your work you may want to look at your health exchange plan so whether it's a will across the country or here in California we have covered California you may be eligible for a plan with the same company with similar benefits where the state based on your income is going to help you pay for some

of that costs monthly and those plans are permanent those are plans that you can have in perpetuity or you may even look at medical if your income has been severely diminished you might be altered for Medicare not have any cost for your health insurance so those are great alternatives you can also look directly at a private health insurance with the insurance company you have so not through the health exchange not than médicale just going directly to the Blue Shield's of the world or the health myths of the world and buying an insurance policy directly from them so those are some additional alternatives that you could have in addition to getting Cobra or instead of getting

Cobra thank you so much for watching our video today I hope that you found it useful or helpful or at least interesting and if you did please don't forget to Like and subscribe that way you can get updates when our newest and most informative videos become available also if you have any questions you have any comments leave them down below be happy to answer your questions and comments in a new post or a video as soon as we can now finally we here at California we know health insurance whether it's covered California or Medicare or Medicaid or Medicaid or even health insurance for a small group we know

health insurance so if you're here in California our services are 100% free I know it can be very frustrating coming out of your work insurance and having to find private health insurance or if you're turning 65 you're trying to figure out what is the best Medicare plan for you we can walk you through that whole process help you review the benefits the cost and figure out which plan best fits you so please if you have any questions about your health insurance reach out to us at the information below and we'll be happy to walk you through that process and other than that I'm Michael and this is California wish you a happy healthy day