Healthcare fail: COBRA does not want you

COBRA does not want you. You are a liability, a potential loss of money, a thing to drop as soon as possible. COBRA does not want you, nor do they care about you. I've learned this through two experiences.

The first happened in early 2005 after leaving Microsoft. The monthly payments were in the mid-400's plus 10 cents. While the exact amount can't be recalled, let's say it was $425.10. One day when I called COBRA to ask a question about coverage they informed me that I was no longer covered because of a failed payment. Both knowing this must be an error and frightened at the prospect of swimming the health care seas without an insurance lifeboat, I pushed through the ranks from one supervisor to the next. I finally learned by how much I was short: Ten cents. Surely this could be fixed, no? No. No no, a thousand times no they said. I could not mail them a dime. I could not mail them a check for zero dollars and ten cents. Once I was off their plan, that was it. The end. Finito.

That night I frantically went through my past checks' carbon copies and found the offending payment. Apparently I was in a hurry when I wrote the check because the number in the box was $425.00 but the written amount was "four-hundred twenty-five and 10/100" dollars. A quick call to my bank confirmed that the written amount trumps the number amount. Armed with this new information I called COBRA the next day. They said they would look into it. The following week I was reinstated. The following month they paid for my sinus surgery (above photo documents recovery)

My second experience with COBRA coverage started March 1st of this year. I mailed them a check for the first payment of $657.36 along with all the paperwork. About a week later I received a letter stating that all the paperwork was in order but they still needed my first payment. An immediate phone call was met with a "you're wrong, we're right" attitude. No, they didn't have the check, they never received the check, I owed them $657.36 in order to begin my coverage. A quick log-in to my bank showed me that the check was cashed by COBRA. Not long after I called and told them they have my money and need to fix the problem. A few hours later they sheepishly admitted the problem was their error.

About a week later I received a packet with my new coverage information and a new premium of $741.89, a 13% increase. I had no idea the rates would go up, nor that the benefits would change. Perhaps naively I thought that when COBRA started the coverage wouldn't change until you left the plan or it expired. Instead it mirrors changes in your former employer's policy. COBRA told me that the original premium hike was going to be 35% but it was negotiated to only 13%.

Just today I went in for a routine eye exam and, despite the fact that my insurance card explicitly states I have vision coverage, the insurance company denied the claim and stated the card was in error. Yet another call to COBRA told me that my vision switched to a new provider and they confirmed that my eye doctor is a part of that plan. However, a call to the doctor's office resulted in the opposite answer - he is not a part of the plan.

Here are a few other ways COBRA is not on your side:

• If you want to pay the premium with a credit card there is a 3% ($25 minimum) surcharge.
• There is not a way to set up a recurring payment on their site.
• They refuse to bill monthly. Instead you get an 8.5"x11" piece of paper with three payment coupons that you must cut out. The onus is on the insured to remember each payment. There is no mailing nor an email to remind you.

On the positive side, there are people like Dave Chase outlining innovative alternatives and ideas for health care reform. The following are highly recommended reads:

• Start ups do it yourself health care reform
• Health insurances bunker
• Skip the insurer