At 11:13 AM Tuesday 10/28/2008, Dave Land wrote: >I understand the need personally, having had a child who died from >brain cancer, the medical costs of which would have wiped out most >or all of our wealth. Were it not for a generous manager at Hewlett- >Packard, who suggested that my wife go on a leave of absence (rather >then letting her resign her position), thus continuing our company- >sponsored medical insurance, we would have been left with no home >and no savings. I was self-employed at the time. > >If that hadn't wiped us out, then my own brain cancer, eight years >later, probably would have. This time, it was COBRA -- an act the >United States government that uses the power of tax incentives to >ensure that companies' insurance plans include provisions so that >employees can continue their benefits after a "qualifying event" -- >that stood between us and financial ruin. Having been laid off by Sun >Microsystems (largely because of cognitive effects of the cancer), >I was able to continue to buy the same insurance that I had when I >was employed (the top-of-the-line package: my experience with Kevin >made certain of that), which was a Damn Good Thing™, considering that >I was taking about $9,000/month in chemo and other drugs after.
I'm glad it worked out for you (and I'm sorry you needed it.) My experience with COBRA was that the monthly premium was pretty much the same as the total of unemployment insurance payments for the month, making it out of reach unless you had been working long enough to have saved up enough to live on for the duration of your unemployment. . . . ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
