Name:   copperline - Subject:   Cobra? Date:   4/25/2016 10:11:23 PM

COBRA was a provision under a federal law that a family or person could continue to be a member of their subscriber group for up to 18 months following termination of employment if the subscriber continued to pay their premium...and that premium was increased to include both the individual's previous monthly payment plus any amount that used to be paid by the (now) ex-employer.    After the end of 18 months, you could not continue in that group... whether you had found new coverage or not.    It was helpful to lots of people. but only for a year and a half max.

Lots of people thought 'preexisting conditions' weren't possible because they changed employers but not insurance companies.  BC/BS has has always had a 95% market share in Alabama, so many people never worked where anything but that company's policies were available.    Cigna, United Healthcare, Anthem, Humana... all of those were unknown here until relatively recently.    

In previous years, it was customary for Alabama BC/BS to not use their preexisting exclusion option on people who were changing from one BC/BS group to another BC/BS group.   Under those circumstances, it was not a benefit to the company to exclude either on grounds of pre existing illness or a waiting period...  because if you allowed the subscriber to get sicker while they are waiting for coverage, and they were going to be in one of your groups at some point anyway... they are going to be a larger expense in the long run if you didn't bring them in without lapses in treatment.      Subscribers may have concluded that BC/BS was just being generous and eager to please when they were told that no pre existing condition or waiting periods would be applied to their case.   

Not so if they had been previously covered by another insurance company though.   Not the case if you leave BC/BS and tried to get an other company's policy either.      In that case, pre-existing exclusions were common because they served to "refine" their subscriber base and bar people who would be 'high utilizers' of healthcare.

As time went on, as in my case, BC/BS was beginning to use the pre-existing condition exclusion more freely to refine their suscriber lists.. even among previous policy holders.     You were particularly vulnerable if you were trying to go from any group policy to an individual policy or individual/family policy.