gwilks98

some of you may remember, but my father passed away in January. My parents started their own business with my younger (mentally disabled) brother.
Their healthcare wasn't great, but they were all on a group plan together. With dad's passing, the group plan vaporized, needing at least 3 people for all to have coverage.

My mom is currently doing work for her company as an IT contractor, but it's only worth about 20 hrs a week. It's difficult for her to go back to work full time, because my brother can't be home alone for 50 hours a week. He gets stir crazy and is obsessive compulsive. (Also, the economy makes it tough for a 53 year old woman with no college degree to find a decent white collar job.)

I'm an IT guy, so I don't understand much of the health care world. Would any of you be willing to share what you think her best option is for health care? She's in terrible physical shape, has a bad diet and has already had 1 stroke back in 06. My parents took a gamble and it bit them a few years ago. I'm not wanting my mom to make the same mistake twice.

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attgig

can your brother get on some sort of public assistance for medical?

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renovation

that seems like the best you can hope for at this point most small insurance companys require a medical history before they approve yu for coverage and your moms stroke is going be a real hard one to get around unless its a company supply works policy.and at 20 hours aweek thats not likely in todays economy.
my wife and I are in a fix for heath care to her hospital supplys coverage .but as soon as she retires its cut off. she a RN nursewith 30 plus years at the same hospital.and were looking into retirement. im trying to apply right now for a full time job with heath care. so we can retire as heath care will eat are savings and retirement up alive . were talking $600 for min coverage and 2 grand a month maybe for good coverage. well both be in are mid 50's if she were to retire tomorrow.

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ray

Is the group plan they were formerly under a Corporate Health Plan being paid for by the family company? If not, that's something you should consider looking into. It may cost a bit more than getting insurance individually, but if i'm not mistaken anybody who is "employed" (meaning someone who has a job title and a paycheck) cannot be refused medical insurance if they are an employee of the company who is entitled to receive medical benefits from the company.

gwilks98

Yes, it was paid for by the company, but they have to have at least 3 people on the payroll to qualify as a company, or to get the rates they were getting. (I'm not sure which.)
Either way, coverage ended when dad died.

renovation

what rays talking about is cobra and that only for a limited time if there employees and not owners of a company that down sizes.when the policy was cancelled that is the end of coverage.for small family run company. a employee as long as not a family member can keep it for a year on cobra if they pay the prem.

renovation

my brother inlaw just got let go from bc/bs of michigan and he could keep the insurance going on cobra for a year at $550 a month, but when your under employed or unemployed how do you afford to pay the price of heath insurances ?

ray

No, I am not talking about Cobra. Cobra is voluntarily activated when you leave a company and wish to extend your medical coverage until you acquire new health insurance.

I am pretty sure there are corporate health plans you can get that don't have minimums on the number of employees in the corporation.

Nija

Is there something stopping you from being employed by the family company? That would seem to be the easiest thing.

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gwilks98

I asked about that, but the cost would be about the same as if they just got their own separate health insurance.
I came to the scary realization last night that I don't think my mom is taking her medication right now.

attgig

canada......

InfiniteNothing

NICE! Just say "eyh" alot

Have you looked into Kaiser? It's pretty cheap at least for young people.

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