COBRA retro active INCREASE in premium...CAN THEY DO THIS???

Have your breakdown at your first appointment!  Actually, I'm serious.  The place where you get your mammogram or infusion or anything else should have access to or at least info about how to access social services support and that is what you need right now.  Walk in, register and then start crying and tell them you just got this horrible COBRA info and you can't afford any more treatment and you don't know what to do.  There's a lot of help out there if you can find it, and that's what social services does all the time--connect people with help!

Frankly, there are times when I wish I didn't have any health insurance, I would have gotten a lot of financial help.  If only I had known at the time.  I too, went through the COBRA thing--only they didn't pay any claims for 3 months, told everyone who submitted claims that I didn't have insurance due to a "clerical error."  My credit is still trashed, and will be for many, many years to come as I try to get the radiation center to resubmit the claims.  I was not offered social services help until my last week of treatment, and by that time I didn't qualify for any help because treatment was almost done.  

The whole insurance thing SUCKS. 

O2B, depends if you got laid off or resigned. I googled "ARRA and COBRA" and this is what I came up with. I thought the COBRA was extended to Sept 2010 at least.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

News Statement

Statement of Assistant Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi on extension of COBRA subsidy eligibility to May 31, 2010

Washington – Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis C. Borzi today issued the following statement regarding the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the premium reduction under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA):

"On April 15, 2010, the President signed into law an extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA premium assistance that helps with the cost of health benefits for Americans who lost their jobs.   This extension provides a COBRA premium subsidy for eligible individuals who are involuntarily terminated from employment through May 31, 2010.

"The new law also provides retroactive eligibility for individuals who lost their jobs after the prior COBRA subsidy expired on March 31, 2010.  These programs are vitally important to the economic wellbeing of workers who lost their jobs and their family members. 

"ARRA provides a 65 percent tax subsidy for the cost of health benefits, making them much more affordable for the unemployed and their families.  Millions of individuals may be eligible to receive a premium subsidy for up to15 months. 

"This administration is committed to putting Americans back to work so they can rebuild the financial fabric of their lives, and the Labor Department is working hard to make that happen."

Additional information is available at www.dol.gov/COBRA.  Subscribe to the dedicated web page to get updates as new information about the COBRA subsidy become available.

ob2healthy,,,,it's just so exhausting to deal with the abrubt change from life as we knew it to being a fulltime bc patient....Docs, appts, scans, meds, bills, take over our everyday life!!...and then to try to even comprehend the insurance mumbo-jumbo, the policy and billing might as well be written in Chinese....The frustration of it all could not possibly have anything but a negative effect on our poor worn out bodies and minds...I'm glad you got a little clarification from Cobra and congrats on great mammo results!!!!

Being diagnosed 10/09, we just reached out deductible at years end...to be hit again Jan/10 to start all over again...I have been fighting an office visit charge for each of my rad treatments ($30 x 30 treatments = $900, these do not even count towards my deductible) it is a real pain to do the paperwork required to oppose these but they are just not fair...I was told that as long as I keep challenging these ( I have paid all other fees for my rads) that this will not go into collection..I have just made some leeway on these as they have eliminated almost 1/2 of these charges...

My sister had max'd out her credit cards (addicted to gambling) was able to consolidate them to a much lower amount through a credit counseling group....She had to miss at least 3 payments first to be able to do this, I don't think she was concerned about her credit score..since she is married to a doctor (who is oblivious to her gambling, knows nothing about her credit cards) and still gets whatever she wants...She wastes so much $$$$, she's sick and very much in denial of her gambling, I would be a wealthy woman if I just had her losses for a year.....Just a shame!!!