Health is wealth which is why it is compulsory for an employer to take care of his employee’s health for the work to be more productive. Even it is mandatory in law, not just optional for employers to take care of employee health. But after the employee was retired or is sacked then it is no more mandatory for the employee to take care of the former worker’s health … now up to the employee’s discretion on how long the company still wants to take care of the health. Today in this article we will let you know How Long Do You Have Health Insurance After Leaving A Job?
Let’s start with what Health insurance is ..
What is Health Insurance
Health insurance is health security given to an employee by an employer while the employee is still working with the company. When talking about health it typically means medical which means the company taking responsibility for its workers’ medical bills like prescribed drugs, checkups, injuries, illnesses, accidents, and a lot more.
The difference between compensation insurance and medical insurance or health insurance
Good numbers of workers always ask questions like does health insurance cover medical issues outside work? The answer is yes. A company that grants you health insurance will take responsibility for your medical issues in and out of work while you are still working in the company.
There is compensation insurance that will not be paid if the injury was gotten outside or not related to work but this kind of insurance was only paid if the employer got disabled due to work-related issues, death, or any higher injury. Employers will compensate their workers if any disability or death and it usually occurs in the engineering industry may be due to machine-injured work causing disability and more.
Does Medical Insurance affect your salary?
Most workers always ask this question may be medical insurance affects their salary or were hidden in their payroll… But it is typically NO..
Your company takes full responsibility for your health-related issue from the company pocket, not from the employer’s salary or any contribution from the employer’s salary at all. For work to be going smoothly company must take care of its employee, especially their health.
Health insurance from the company is mostly tax-free because the employer is giving their worker the benefit of working with them and increasing the productivity of the country’s economy.
Benefits Of Health Insurance
These are a few benefits of working in a company with health insurance:
Better health: You will have better health because you will not hesitate to go for checkups continuously and take care of every little illness you observe
No medical Bills: Working with the company will automatically cancel your personal medical cost
Peace of Mind: You will not be scared to take risks or explore yourself since you already know your health is covered
Now let t quickly answer the question…
How Long Do You Have Health Insurance After Leaving A Job?
Basically, this is always due to the company policy but generally, your health insurance will be terminated by the end of the month you are no longer working for the company. For example, if you resign or are sacked in the middle of the month your health is still covered by the company till the end of that same month but if this happens at the end of the month that means you are no more covered.
In some company policies, your health insurance expires or is terminated immediately after you are terminated in the company for more clarity kindly contact the human resources department in your company.
How To Prepare To Leave A Job
Proper planning while leaving a job is very important. You need to know the company policy for health insurance and when it will stop then you have to plan for how you can continue the health insurance through other insurance companies like cobra or maybe you put in for personal health insurance in the marketplace.
Kindly take these three tips important when you are leaving your job and the company gives you health insurance:
- It is very important you talk with your Human Resources officer in your company upfront to know when your health insurance expires when you leave the job
- If your Human resources said your company covers your heath till ending of the month. It is best you consider quitting early in the month so that you will have enough time to switch to your new company’s health insurance if you are putting in to another company else you will have ot be paying for COBRA
- Try as much to quickly gather all the documents you will need in your new health insurance company fast enough.
What are your health insurance options after leaving a job?
When you leave your job there are some health insurance companies you can continue using which are:
COBRA: This is a health insurance company that allows employees to continue the previous insurance plan at their own expense. You can continue that for a period of 18 months and also depending on the circumstances you can continue it for a longer period.
Though it is not compulsory to sign up for cobra you might not but you have 60 days after you leave your previous work to conclude whether you will sign up for it or not. You will also need to provide your previous company contact.
Health insurance marketplace: Sometimes COBRA might be so expensive but you have the option to opt-in to other health insurance marketplaces. Just like COBRA, you have 60 days after you leave your work to determine whether to apply for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace and they will continue the same plan you have with your company while you continue paying for it. Though they do subsidize it for you but might still cost a little bit.
Join a spouse’s plan: This is another great opportunity but it’s for those that have married. You can enroll with your spouse’s plan because losing your job is part of the qualification that can make you enroll faster.
If you want to enroll just contact your spouse’s company administrator.
