What happens if you lose your health insurance? are the common questions asked by most Americans if they lose their job or are forced to quit?
What Happens If You Lose Your Health Insurance?
Most Americans rely on their employers to provide them with Health Insurance. So what happens if you lose your health insurance because you quit your job or get fired?
Well, going without health insurance could mean facing extremely high medical bills! This could leave you with mountains of medical debt.
However, the good news is when you lose your employer-sponsored health insurance, you generally have the option to retain it for some time but the bad side is that retaining employer health insurance can be prohibitively expensive in its own right.
Here’s What You Need To Know If You Lose Your Health Insurance!
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act known as COBRA privileged the workers to let them retain their group health insurance after departing from the employer that provided that coverage.
How does Cobra work? so if you are part of a group health plan covering 20 or more employees, you’ll generally be eligible for COBRA once you lose your health insurance. You can keep your existing coverage for up to 18 months in most cases, however, there may be some exceptions, the ascent reported.
However, the downside of COBRA, you’re required to pay your entire premium yourself and it could cost you a lot.
Does COBRA Cost Too Much?
If you plan to sign up for health insurance through healthcare.gov. You can check if you are eligible to join a spouse’s health plan.
There are different tiers of coverage you can buy independently through healthcare.gov. Bronze is the lowest tier of insurance, so you pay the lowest monthly premium for a Bronze plan. But if you are on a tight budget any of these plans may still be higher for you.
The higher the tier you choose, means more expensive your health insurance premiums are likely to be. But spending more on premiums, the less you’re likely to spend on bills like deductibles and copays.
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