(here’s that article from the Washington Post)

But in fairness, the article focuses on the cost of COBRA plans – which have ALWAYS been prohibitively expensive for people who need them!

COBRA guarantees continued benefits for many people who have lost their jobs where they had group insurance (too many details to cover with COBRA, but that’s the jist of it).

So why is it so much MORE expensive than the group plan someone had prior to being unemployed?  Actually, it isn’t any more expensive.

Under COBRA, the (former) employee is simply forced to pay the full price of the plan.  Formerly, that same (former) employee was only paying a relatively small portion of the premium, which they still found to be “too expensive” of course.

Are there any alternatives to COBRA?

Yes!  Several insurance companies offer “short term” policies that are much less expensive than COBRA.  The catch: they are not guaranteed insurable plans, so you must qualify for coverage.  But, qualification is much easier than for full blown major medical plans.

Here is a link to the leading provider of short term health insurance, Time Insurance Company, an Assurant Health company: Short Term Health Plan Quotes

From that link, you can get your own quotes and apply online. Coverage can be in effect as soon as – tomorrow!

If you have any questions about this or any other health plans, please feel free to contact our offices, either via phone or email.

Some of the main findings include:

• Rising health care costs “pose a serious threat” to the economy, but some of the more popular cost-control policies promoted by lawmakers will do little to help
• unless changes are made, the USA will spend 25% of its total economy on health care by 2025, up from about 16% now
• the number of uninsured could jump 20% in 10 years, up from about 45 million in 2009 to 54 million
• some plans promoted by President-elect Barack Obama and many other lawmakers such as wide adoption of electronic health records and better preventive care could improve health but would likely result in only modest savings or even increase the federal government’s costs over 10 years

If we really want to cut the cost of healthcare, according to the CBO, the key, number one thing that must happen is:

• reduce payments to doctors, hospitals and other medical providers — this could save hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years

“By far, the biggest savings are cutting what we pay to people in the health care system. Everything else is really small,” says Robert Laszewski, a health policy consultant and former insurance industry executive”

In other words, we need to pay physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers — LIKE SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Now, why didn’t I think of that?