... in response to COBRA?, posted by MikePastore on Jun 21, 2003Actually I was on COBRA. As I said before I am a consultant so I work for different companies for varying lengths of time. My latest employer didn't offer health insurance to me when I started (there seems to be a real trend in that recently), so I was on COBRA from my last job. But that company dropped health care coverage for all its employees as well as its COBRA ex-employees. That is why I called the Florida insurance board and the US Department of Labor. It was very interesting and educating in an unpleasant manner. Each agency I talked to said they felt it had to be illegal for the company to drop coverage, but that it wasn't actually in their jurisdiction to do anything about it and referred me to another agency. When I finally worked my way to the Department of Labor they said it was under their jurisdiction and that it was legal for the company to drop the coverage for COBRA employees if they dropped the insurance for other employees as well. What was even more of a surprise was that if I had been on COBRA for a full 18 months I would have been eligible to get a certificate that would allow me to get private insurance without the health pre-existing conditions qualifications. But since the insurance ended before the 18 month period ended I am not eligible for the certificate which means I can't get private insurance. And this was legal, can you believe it?
To answer Wayne11’s question to where the money went over the last 10 years, well hardly any of it went for fun. When I was 32 I married a woman who had 3 small children and we were married for 13 years until they were raised without any child support from the father. When we divorced about 4 years ago after the children were raised, I gave my wife all the major assets which amounted to a house and about $30,000 because she didn't have any skills which would earn very much and I didn't want her to be destitute. I think it was the right choice because she found somebody in less than a year who was able to provide for her and I continued to earn a good salary and had bought another house for myself and amassed about $30,000 again. Unfortunately I spent all but $5000 on my trips to Colombia (I went every 2 weeks from September to February) and the wedding and honeymoon. When my wife got here I spent the last $5000 on a car for her.
Well I am rambling big time and seemed to have revealed about all my personal information for the last 20 years, but I am still kind of in shock of everything that unfolded so suddenly and I guess talking about it helps me feel better since my wife isn’t here to talk to.
