Consider your options when you lose your employer-sponsored insurance

Finding out you are being laid off is stressful, and in addition to that, you have to make important decisions about health insurance that can save you—or cost you—thousands of dollars at a critical time. It’s important to consider all your options when deciding between COBRA or buying your own plan.

What is COBRA? COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which is a federal law that allows you and any of your immediate family members to stay on your employer’s health plan under certain circumstances :

• You lose or quit your job 
• You get a divorce 
• The employee dies 
• You are no longer covered as a dependent due to your age

Only employers with 20 or more workers in the previous year are required to offer COBRA coverage. State and local governments fall under COBRA, but the federal government and certain religious organizations do not.

COBRA can be expensive. People who choose COBRA coverage must pay the entire premium, including the portion previously paid by the employer, plus a 2 percent administrative fee. Be warned, if you enroll in COBRA and later on want to switch to a health plan directly to an insurance company or through the Washington Healthplanfinder, you will have to wait until the next open enrollment period if you don’t qualify for a special enrollment.

Options other than COBRA
Before you decide to go with COBRA, find out if you can buy a health plan through the Washington Healthplanfinder and receive a subsidy to help pay your insurance premiums. You can also purchase coverage directly from an insurance company, broker or agent if you don’t qualify for any subsidies.

If you choose a health insurance plan, you likely will be responsible for a full yearly deductible. Generally, health insurance deductibles are not prorated for partial-year enrollees, no matter how few months are left in the plan year. Individual or family qualified health plans operate on a calendar year, from January through December. There is no way to transfer the money you spent toward another plan’s deductible when you switch plans mid-year.

Read more about losing your health insurance on our website. Questions? Contact our consumer advocates online or at 1-800-562-6900.

For COBRA- specific laws and questions, contact:

U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration

Seattle District Office

300 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1110

Seattle, WA 98104

206-757-6781

Learn more about Medicare at free event July 9 in Seattle

Are you new to Medicare? The Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) will be at the Seattle Central Library from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 9.

You will learn about:
• Medicare parts A, B, C and D
• Your Medicare benefits and options
• How to get help paying for Medicare if you qualify

Find registration and parking information for this event.

Other resources:
• Find out more events on the SHIBA calendar.
• Read more about SHIBA and how it can help you.
• Do you have Medicare questions? Call 1-800-562-6900.

Kreidler speaks to consumers in Shoreline about Medicare

Attendees to a Medicare birthday event on Saturday morning got to hear Insurance Commissioner Kreidler talk about why Medicare is important and what SHIBA does for Washington consumers. 

Commissioner Kreidler and Judy Ellis, SHIBA volunteer
with Sound Generations in Shoreline 

SHIBA stands for Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors. It’s a statewide network of nearly 400 highly trained volunteers who have been helping seniors and others understand their health insurance options for more than 35 years in Washington state. Washington was the first state in the nation to establish a SHIBA program, before the federal government offered assistance in reaching out the consumers who are or are about to be enrolled in Medicare.

Medicare provides health coverage for nearly 45 million Americans who are age 65 and older, and for 7 million younger adults with permanent disabilities. Medicare has been in existence for 51 years, which really isn’t that long ago. 

Attendees at the Medicare birthday event 

on June 18 in Shoreline 

Commissioner Kreidler recalled for the attendees a time before Medicare existed when his grandmother had to move in with his parents because she was ill and didn’t have health coverage. Her medical bills prohibited her from living on her own. If Medicare had existed, it would have provided a lifeline for her to have access to the health care she needed.

SHIBA offers free, unbiased assistance with health care choices, including Medicare, to more than 100,000 Washington residents each year. You can find more SHIBA events around the state at http://bit.ly/SHIBAevents.

Department of Health looking for experts on patient out-of-pocket costs

During the last legislative session, Washington's Department of Health was charged with convening a task force on patient out-of-pocket costs. Senate Bill 6569 directed the task force to focus on two key areas:

1. Evaluating factors that contribute to out-of-pocket costs for patients and to the state.
2. Considering the health and economic impact of out-of-pocket patient costs to patients and to the state.

If you have particular expertise in this area and represent patient groups, insurance companies, pharmacists, pharmacy benefit managers, unions, business associations, or biotechnology representatives please consider joining this important task force.

Members of the task force will be asked to attend no more than four half-day, in-person meetings in the Puget Sound region between July 1 and Dec. 1, 2016.

To be considered for the task force, please respond to DOH Secretary John Weisman's letter by COB May 24, 2016 via email to C4PA@doh.wa.gov

Join telephone town hall to get answers to your questions about Social Security, Medicare

Join the King County Library System (KCLS) for a live telephone town hall meeting with specialists from the Social Security Administration and Washington Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA). This free event will take place on Wednesday, May 18 from 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. 

Topics will include how to make the most of your Social Security benefits, health insurance and Medicare coverage. 

A telephone town hall is like a radio talk show, but you simply listen on your phone! Experts will take live questions from the audience. 

On the day of the telephone town hall you will receive a telephone call from the library between 10:25 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Please answer the call and stay on the line, as it could take a few minutes before the call starts. You will hear some introductory remarks and then be connected.

Be sure to include your telephone number in the registration to receive a phone call! 

Brought to you by the Social Security Administration, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner, the KCLS Foundation and AARP.

Register here for the telephone town hall.