Q. I lost my job last August and have health care coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Can I continue my COBRA coverage until my 65th birthday next year? I live in California.
Q. I had triple bypass heart surgery in June. I went back to work part-time, and my employer says it’s illegal for him to pay for my insurance benefits because I don’t work full-time. Is this true?
Q. Can an employer legally limit its retirees to one kind of health care plan when active employees have several plan options?
Q. I lost my job last August and have health care coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Can I continue my COBRA coverage until my 65th birthday next year? I live in California.
A. COBRA coverage generally lasts for 18 months. If your coverage started on Sept. 1, 2005, your eligibility will end March 1, 2007. If your birthday falls after that date, you can't continue your COBRA coverage until you are 65. You can buy an individual health insurance policy within 63 days of the date your COBRA coverage expires. But after that, you lose your guarantee of access to health care coverage and insurers can turn you down. Different states have different rules. In California you are guaranteed the right to buy coverage from private insurers, but each insurer is allowed to limit your choice to two policies. If you have questions about your rights, contact the California Department of Insurance. —Expertise provided by Geraldine Smolka, May 2006
Q. I had triple bypass heart surgery in June. I went back to work part-time, and my employer says it’s illegal for him to pay for my insurance benefits because I don’t work full-time. Is this true?
Health insurance coverage is an employee benefit that employers offer voluntarily. Federal law, however, requires that employers treat similarly situated employees alike. So if your employer, for example, offers coverage only to part-timers who work a certain number of hours or more a week, then those rules must be applied uniformly to all other workers. Call your state’s department of insurance and ask if state laws limit coverage of part-time workers. In addition, find out about other coverage options and consumer protection laws in your state by visiting a website maintained by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. —Expertise provided by Geraldine Smolka, March 2005
Q. Can an employer legally limit its retirees to one kind of health care plan when active employees have several plan options?
Yes. Although employers may not offer health plans based on a worker’s age, they may offer them based on a worker’s employment status. Health benefits may vary, for example, for full-time workers and part-time workers, or for union workers and nonunion workers. Similarly, an employer may offer retirees just one health plan and active workers a choice of health plans. All retirees, including early retirees and those eligible for Medicare, must be offered comparable coverage. To do that, some employers simply supplement Medicare benefits. —Expertise provided by Geraldine Smolka and Laurie McCann, May 2005
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