How my COBRA went from $420 to $1700 under Obamacare.

May 5, 2017
Occupy Democrats Parody

Originally my employer subsidized both my individual health insurance AND coverage for my family.  I had moved from my wife’s benefit to my own as she was working as a contractor for a time.

A modest amount was withheld from each paycheck and nothing was all that extraordinary.  Once Obamacare regulations made into effect, my company was forced to make some hard choices.

They were forced to provide the same health plan company wide.  On the surface that sounds pretty nice or even “fair” but in practical reality, offering a full family plan from the minimum wage paycheck wouldn’t go as “unnoticed” as it might be for the mid-range and upper-range employees at a company.  So they would be basically punished in that offering them the same package I had, or any in upper management would be, for them, unaffordable, and more importantly, the mere fact that the coverage was even offered by the company would render them ineligible for the ObamaCare discounts.

So… to preserve their ability to enjoy the low-income advantage of “affordable” care, the company had to eliminate family coverage company wide.  So instantly a high but not outrageous $420 to $500 out of pocket became $1600 of monthly withholding.  My income was variable so it because completely plausible that the bulk of my check would be sucked dry into this new outlay.

After what seems many moths of being bled dry by “insurance” I got caught up in a scenario that had me, for a time, unemployed.  And of course the COBRA bill which I previously remembered being a rather steep (for having no job) $420 was now offering me the “opportunity” to enroll for, (drum roll…) $1,700.00 per month.

Not sure what you might have decided, but I chose financial health and saved $6800 for waiting on my wife’s contract turned full-time employee scenario to pick up the load.

Had my first ever period of having zero health coverage gone longer, I might have earned the opportunity to cough up the big fee on unearned money in my taxes as some friends of mine had experienced.

My story has a happy ending.  Money saved,  coverage restored along with my general condition of good health owed to sensible life choices.  But I’m not here just to advocate for my own wins or losses, and for countless Americans, the costs associated with what amounts to an “empty box” policy has literally made people sick over “health care.”

©2017 Occupy Democrats Parody