COBRA questions

[Slave to the Phone]

I got laid off 3 weeks ago. As of today, I am do not have medical insurance. I haven't been offered COBRA yet and knowing how the company works, doubt that I will be offered it.

The company in question has over 150 employees, so I know that they are required to offer it to me.

Does anyone know what I should do?

To further explain, I don't want COBRA. Its way expensive and I'll be starting a county job tomorrow. I'm pretty healthy and am sure that I'll be OK until my new coverage starts.

I want to screw my old boss as badly as he screwed me.

I knew that he was spending more than he was making a couple of months ago. I kept asking if I should update my resume and he kept saying "No! Everything is going great. I'll give you plenty of warning if anything goes wrong."

I went to work on Monday and everything was great. I went to work on Tuesday and got laid off when I walked in the door. Jerk, why did he make me drive an hour when he could have done it Monday evening. To add insult to injury, I've got dinky saddlebags so had to drive back on Wednesday to get my stuff and to return my uniforms.

They screwed me for my unemployment. They took the money from my checks, but didn't bother to send it to the state.

Sooooo...any tips as how to get him in trouble with the feds?

[AFpheonix]

Gah, avoid COBRA like the plague. I hardly ever get a claim to work correctly through it, and it costs a lot of money.

But anyhoo, your previous boss is supposed to notify your insurance plan provider of the reason for your termination within 30 days of your last day of work, and then after that you have 45 days to elect into coverage.

I suppose, you could call the Dept of Labor at 1.866.444.3272 if you're feeling evil....
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html had a lot of good info on all this stuff.

[Tutorgal]

Well, to start you could call the dept of labor in your state and report the unemployement money issue.

[Slave to the Phone]

Thanks guys

AFphoenix, thank you SO much! That was the number I tried unsuccessfully to find. Guess my googlefoo isn't as strong as I thought. I don't need to buy into COBRA because I don't have any "pre-existing conditions" that would cause problems with my new insurance.

I didn't get offered COBRA from the job before that one, but I didn't care because I left them on good terms.

Tutorgal, I've reported him to the Unemployment folks and they are following up, but I have no way of knowing what they are doing

This situation is very frustrating because he screwed me so badly and I don't want him to get away with it.

[sportsmom]

COBRA is a PIA, but in some cases it is worth it. I had to use it one time, because I was pregnant when I changed jobs, but I would not bother if I didn't have anything "pre-existing".