Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

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thereisnoalpha
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Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by thereisnoalpha »

I am self-employed and each year dread buying health insurance on the MA marketplace. It is so expensive. I am contemplating finding a random job with perhaps a "bad" salary but "good" benefits, affecting my own termination after a week or so and filing for COBRA. Seemingly a workaround for less expensive health insurance.
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cchrissyy
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by cchrissyy »

why do you think COBRA coverage is inexpensive?
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terran
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by terran »

Yes, I suspect you'll be surprised by the cost of COBRA insurance. You pay the full cost plus a small administration surcharge, with no premium assistance from your former employer. Also, some employers don't start your coverage until the second month of employment, so you may have to work longer than a week before this would be an option.
adamthesmythe
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by adamthesmythe »

I will be astonished if you find Cobra insurance to be cheaper.

Apart from the dishonorable nature of what you propose.
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quantAndHold
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by quantAndHold »

I seriously looked into this. I was going to work for 1-3 months, not a week, but same idea.

Mega companies with lots of young employees have awesome insurance, and if I could have got a job with one of those, it would have cost about the same as an unsubsidized Gold ACA plan, but the coverage would have been better. The problem is that the kinds of companies that would have hired me for something like that without me doing something ethically questionable (job shops that hire programmers for $35/hour) have terrible benefits. A bronze ACA plan is cheaper and had better coverage. So I just stuck with the ACA. At least I occasionally get subsidies with that.
sc9182
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by sc9182 »

Decade+ back when someone researched this - I recall one company having 6 months or 1000+ hours worked at that Cop,. As a requirement to be eligible for Cobra.

Is that not required these days, or is there any exemption/change occurred since !?

Dunno - do research before assume 1-3 months work is good enough to meet COBRA eligibility..
Da5id
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by Da5id »

I hope this doesn't work. It is abusive to the employer, who will have to go through the hiring process and onboarding for an employee who doesn't intend to work there.

Massachusetts is probably among the better health connectors in that there are a number of providers and networks to choose among. I use it, seems reasonable to me.
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quantAndHold
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by quantAndHold »

sc9182 wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:33 pm Decade+ back when someone researched this - I recall one company having 6 months or 1000+ hours worked at that Cop,. As a requirement to be eligible for Cobra.

Is that not required these days, or is there any exemption/change occurred since !?

Dunno - do research before assume 1-3 months work is good enough to meet COBRA eligibility..
I looked into it but then didn't do it. If you have "COBRA eligible" coverage (nearly every employer plan is), you just need to work long enough to actually get the insurance coverage started. In most of the white collar jobs we work at, coverage starts either on day 1 or the first of the next month. Part time hourly jobs are more likely to require working some number of hours or months. My current part time job requires me to work 1000 hours in a calendar year to initially qualify for coverage.
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LadyGeek
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Re: Hack for self-employed health insurance; Working 1 week, leave, then COBRA

Post by LadyGeek »

Discussions of dishonest behavior or bypassing the law is totally unacceptable.

The OP intends to find employment for the sole purpose of obtaining health coverage. This thread has run it's course and is locked.
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