Recently, Scott and I attempted to be savvy consumers. His employer (a local public school district) had replaced their previous PPO health plan with one that was somehow covering fewer healthcare expenses while not becoming any cheaper. So when open enrollment season came around, we decided to investigate the health insurance plans that my employer (another local public school district) offered. After comparing the two of them, we decided to give one of the PPOs my employer offers a try. Scott cancelled his health insurance during open enrollment, and I enrolled in my health insurance. So far, so good, right?
Not quite. I had thought that it was fairly standard for health plans that people enroll in during open season to begin coverage on January 1. For reasons I cannot fathom, coverage under our new plan does not begin until January 14. Meanwhile, Scott's health insurance coverage ends on January 1, leaving us with a small--but potentially financially ruinous--gap in coverage should one of us, say, develop appendicitis or get into a car accident.
Fortunately, (a) because of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), we are able to qualify for private health insurance even though I have a preexisting health condition that probably would have disqualified me previously, and (b) I discovered this impending gap in coverage before December 15. I can't speak for all the state insurance market places, but in at least both Maryland and Virginia, you have to enroll by the 15th of one month to be covered for the first of the next month. I knew this because this is not our first experience with buying coverage. We were briefly on Affordable Care Act insurance plans in 2017 when we both lost our jobs and in 2019 when I was in grad school 2.0 and Scott changed jobs, triggering a gap in coverage.
Unfortunately, it's still very expensive. We are sinking over $600 into what appears to be a pretty crummy plan just to avoid dire financial consequences if we happen to be unlucky in the first two weeks of January. I'm feeling particularly annoyed because I remember (some years ago and in Maryland) paying a comparable amount and getting better coverage. I don't know whether to blame the state of Virginia or just inflation for the shoddiness of the coverage.
This has made me wish--and definitely not for the first time--that the US could just come to grips with the fact that everyone needs healthcare at some point or another and view it as a basic human right. This idea that people will be covered through their jobs has been disastrous, what with layoffs, employers that purposely give their workers less than full-time hours to avoid paying benefits, and these sorts of awkward transitional periods like what Scott and I are experiencing now. What's scary is that he and I were pretty much ideally suited to not have a break in coverage, what with both of us being full-time employees in public sector jobs, but yet, here we are. I shudder to think how precarious health insurance coverage is for other people who don't have as stable of jobs, particularly those people who don't have the money to purchase private health insurance during coverage gaps.
As for us, we are going to try very hard to stay healthy and uninjured during the first two weeks in January. We've even gone so far as to reschedule medical appointments that were originally in early January. Ironically enough, this is $600 that I hope will just be money down the drain and not be used, and I'm hoping that the insurance we get on January 14 is amazing enough to justify all this annoyance and expense.
