<p>A couple of years ago, my husband was the victim of downsizing at his job for a major company after 18 years. He was unemployed for a few months but was lucky to find a new position relatively soon after that and has been in that job for over 2 years now. His old company asked him to come back with a promotion. He begins on Monday and his last day in current job is on Friday. </p>
<p>Our question…are we uninsured Saturday and Sunday? Surely this can’t be an uncommon thing.</p>
<p>Where I am employed, we pay for health insurance monthly - so if you’ve paid your premium for the month of August, you would be covered through the end of the month? Also, when I have begun new jobs, sometimes the new health insurance doesn’t kick in until the subsequent month.</p>
<p>Can your H check with his current employer? If all else fails, there’s always COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) coverage.</p>
<p>Often insurance lasts 30 days after the last day, at least that has been the case with the policy we’ve had. The current employer’s human relations or personnel person should be able to provide this information for you. If not, the medical insurance company you are currently covered under should be able to help with this as well. Is there any crucial problem that would occur if you didn’t have insurance for those two days? Just curious.</p>
<p>If need be, tell current employer you want to cobra, start that process and then cancel whe new insurance is in place</p>
<p>I believe you have 31 days during which you can elect COBRA (for continuation of your current group coverage, with premiums paid by you), so you can hold off until the end of that period to see if it would be worth doing. (If you do need medical care during that 31-day period, your coverage would be retroactive to pick up from your last day under the group plan.)</p>
<p>Do make sure of the start date of the coverage with the new job, though – sometimes there is a waiting period. And there is often a delay in getting the new insurance cards and showing up on the new insurer’s data base.</p>
<p>P.S. And major congrats to your H!</p>
<p>Our premiums were paid for the upcoming month…the full month. So if DH left a job on June 15th, he would have been covered until June 30.</p>
<p>Call HR at the OLD job and find out when the current coverage has been paid to.</p>
<p>+1 to JEM’s post</p>
<p>It’s also possible that your husband’s new insurance may not start until September 1.</p>
<p>At some companies, new employees are added to the policy on the first of the month, even if they started during the preceding month. Both of my grown kids recently started new jobs, and both of them faced this situation.</p>
<p>Cannot say, about this specific employer, but here’s how I have handled similar situations in the past:</p>
<p>When I have given notice to an employer I was leaving, instead of writing that my last day was Friday, I listed that Sun as my last day. That way I covered myself for Sat and Sun. Theoretically, in jobs that were 5 days wk, my employer could have made me come in on Sat or Sun, but they never did.</p>
<p>I am guessing though, if this fellow’s old company has persuaded him to come back, then he has probably already negotiated terms of his total compensation, and that would include insurance terms.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your replies. They were very helpful. I can’t believe in all our years of employment we’ve never encountered this before. But the question just occurred to us yesterday. To HIMom…nothing expected, but you never know. Current employer says coverage ends at midnight tomorrow night. Still waiting to hear from new/old company if employment date can be changed to Saturday. But after advice on here, we did ask about COBRA with current company (we do have experience with this after the downsizing). Yes, we will receive a packet soon and if anything did occur over the weekend, we could begin COBRA, pay premium, submit claim, and it would be covered and then cancel COBRA. My mind will be much more at ease this weekend and I won’t have to tell everyone to just stay in bed Saturday and Sunday.</p>
<p>If you read the policy, the ones I’ve read say it runs through 30 days after you stop, but of course mileage varies. COBRA is indeed a good option to have in your back pocket and should be very inexpensive for just a few days or even a few months.</p>
<p>Congrats on the jobs! Great for you! Was surprised when my mom suggested we have NO insurance on S when he aged out of our policy & the U’s policy expired, so it would be mid-Aug thru 12/31. We felt just too uncomfortable about that & there are issues when you have gaps in insurance and pre-existing conditions as S does. The peace of mind was worth the premiums to us. Mom would probably not have bothered & didn’t understand why we did it. :)</p>
<p>D1 started a new job in mid-June, and the insurance with her former company covered her through the end of June. However, insurance did not pick up with the new company until the first day of the month, after having worked a full calendar month, so she was stuck for the month of July. Gratefully, we were able to add her back onto H’s policy since she is still under 26, for the month of July, and have cancelled it as of August 1st now that she’s covered under the new company. She was so incredibly lucky and thankful that she had this option as COBRA would have run almost $700 for the month of July. </p>
<p>But yes, her premium for June had been paid already, so she was covered through the month of June even though her last day at that job was mid-June.</p>
<p>I handle paying the insurance bills at my job. For all of our insurances, new insurance is effective on the first day of the month, and terminating employees’ coverage ends on the last day of the month. So if someone leaves on August 5, they’d be covered through midnight on August 31. </p>
<p>The tricky part could be with the new employer. At some places, the new coverage doesn’t take effect on the hire date. They may require a 30-day waiting period, or 90-day, or some such. I’d contact the new employer and find out if this is the case; if so, COBRA can tide your DH over. But be aware that under COBRA, you’ll have to pay the premiums yourself, and teriwtt is correct, it can be shockingly expensive. So you might want call the old employer and find out how much that would be.</p>
<p>For us, it’s the same price whether S and/or D remain on our family policy or is off of it, so we keep him & her on our policy as long as each is under 26 so each can have our coverage. If either or both get coverage through their workplace, they would have dual coverage & their workplace’s would be primary & H’s with them on it would be 2ndary. It can be handy to have both, especially if there’s no extra charge. :)</p>