oh heavens for sure get rid of the back up second thing that doesn’t work well.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
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oh heavens for sure get rid of the back up second thing that doesn’t work well.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
You never know when life can turn on a dime - my spouse, out of the blue with no warning, was let go (ie. fired) from his job on Friday six months before his full retirement age. It was a very difficult, technical job which required extreme attention to detail (Application Support Analysist) and even he said as he's gotten older that it's been harder for him to multi-task all the different technical things he had to do during the day. But no one (his boss, his bosses boss) pulled him aside to say anything specific about his performance. It came as such a shock to us and one could twist themselves into a pretzel and drive oneself crazy about the reasons.
So what to do now? We are going to have to buy at least one month of COBRA health insurance. I have an appointment on Monday to talk to someone about getting signed up for Medicaid (BeWell New Mexico) and K. can apply for full Medicare (he is already signed up for Part A). I can't help but be extremely worried about the stoopid Big, Beautiful Bill and even getting on Medicaid; thank GOD I live in a very blue, but very poor state (we do get a lot of oil & tax revenues, so I now the state budget has a surplus for now). I am 15 months from being able to sign up for Medicare.
I made him sit down with me to go over our bare minimum monthly expenses and even I was a little shocked to see it all add up. His salary was so good (six figures) for the past 2.5 years that I lost a little bit of my frugal bone and he never had one. I think we will be all right due to our savings and the fact that I was approved for SSDI. I won't get that much but when I add in my little monthly IRA distribution and the job I manage to work at one day a week it is more than a little chunk of money. He already has a job interview tomorrow and has put out his resume to several recruiters anyway because he was so stressed in that job. I know the job market is getting bad though and who is going to hire a 66 year old when there are all these kids with computer science degrees looking for jobs...
He will be filing for unemployment today so there's that. And he is committed to severely pulling back our spending to just the bare essentials. Now I am really glad we stocked up on a lot of food and other essentials at the start of the trade war two months ago. I guess the thing that worries me the most is the health insurance stuff. I still have ongoing issues with my shoulder and arm. On the day he got fired I was getting an EMG and ultrasound of the brachial plexus. I don't know yet how serious this is but she found a lot of fluid in that area, which shouldn't be there a year after surgery. So more doctor visits for a followup locally and there is a possibility that I have to go back to St. Louis at some point too, but I'll cross that bridge when/if it comes to that.
Ughhhhhh, just ugggghhhh.
Wow, what a shock SiouzQ. So sorry to hear.
Oh, wow, SiouzQ! I'm so sorry! "Man plans and God laughs..." But it's really not funny at all.
It looks like you have a good plan in place for next steps.. I hope the both the health issue and the job search go well. And it's great that you have savings.
I have to say, I'm in "bare bones" mode, too, since I haven't worked in 3 months now--which hasn't happened since the mid-90s. DH's boat tour business has potential for keeping us afloat (pun intended) for the summer, and in the meantime, ChatGBT and I are working on possibilities for a spin-off for my business that might give me more control and comparable income.
I'm also in a similar situation as you because I am way more frugal than DH. He laughs at me for some my frugal ways--I think his attitude towards money is a backlash from his frugal mother and grandparents and he associates frugality with lack, not security or future abundance. When I bring up facts about our situation, he tells me not to be Debbie Downer. It's a very hard barrier to overcome.
Anyway, these are new times, for sure. My DD checked out COBRA because she has realized, throughout her sickness that she really hates working at her current position. She just returned from Family Medical Leave and she's re-evaluating her life, and working at her present job does not fit into the picture for her. But COBRA is 2800/month!! Talk about the golden handcuffs that keep you tied to your boss! We need universal healthcare.
I'm so sorry for both the health issues and the job issue. I hope both get resolved in a positive way soon.
COBRA IS EXPENSIVE!!! I don't understand how anyone can afford it.
Catherine, my dh used to be like yours when I bought up our situation. I finally told him- in no uncertain terms - that all I was doing was keeping him updated and that if he didn't want to know, then he would have to leave everything up to me! He still leaves everything to me, but he doesn't grumble or say "you're always depressing", when I tell him what's going on.
OMG, $2800 a month????!!!! Lord have mercy...it might be cheaper for me to just pay for the test I had done (instead of paying a claim on the day the service was performed, BCBS uses the day they RECEIVE the claim, which could be a week to two weeks from the date of service). He'll still get the last paycheck next Friday which will have the deduction for healthcare taken out, so I'm not sure when our healthcare will actually end.
For you it might be way different... her COBRA is based on a family of three, and she had signed up for the Cadillac plan at work. But, in my experience, COBRA is never a good deal, even though they make it sound like it might be.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
From my HR days, insurance coverage typically ends on the last day of employment. COBRA is so expensive because it's the full-price, non-employer-subsidized amount with an administrative fee tacked on (at my former employer it was a 2% fee).
I'm sorry for your situation, SiouzQ, and I'm sorry for both you and your DD's situations, Catherine. I think you are a creative problem solver and look forward to hearing what you come up with. After DH's kidney cancer, we can look back and see that we at least used it to pull out some silver lining stuff and make life changes that left us better off, so I hope something similar happens with your DD.
I am confused why everyone is talking as though COBRA coverage is the only choice.That or “Universal health care.”
Do you all remember that thing called The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare?)
Sure, if you changed to an ACA policy you may have to change providers and for those in the midst of sophisticated treatments that is not optimal, but there ARE options. We took COBRA coverage when I quit work for the maximum time allowed and sure it was expensive, but I wanted out. DH was resistent to hearing anything about an ACA policy and I didnt want to fight with him about it so I just sucked it up and paid the COBRA costs for 18 months. We could afford it.
Then when COBRA coverage ran out, we HAD to switch to an ACA policy and due to our low income I think it was practically free. That was a great year! We went to Europe on money we would have been paying into COBRA coverage.
catherine, your daughter can use an ACA policy and the ACA made sure people like her are not denied coverage.
Give me a break with the talk about handcuffs and “only solution is Universal health care.”
Keep in touch with folks at that employer. If they replace him with a younger person, he could possibly file a claim of age discrimination. Worth watching.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.