Spooky Tales: That Time When I Didn't Have Insurance

A little over a month ago, I quit a job that I'd had for the last seven seven years.  And in the process, I gave up the insurance plan that I'd have for about that same amount of time. 

I had officially transferred into the the bleak and horrifying world of the...

UNINSURED.**

Image from Scoopnext via Huffington Post

I also like to refer to this as, using a Stranger Things reference, "the upside down," because being without insurance in America does seem kind of like a a topsy turvy thing.  But alas, freedom isn't free in America. And neither is health care.  Once I stopped paying for my insurance with soft labor, sitting at a desk calling people and typing away, I was left with these options:
--await my COBRA paperwork;
--sign up for Ben's insurance plan;
--sign up for my new workplace's [slightly inferior?] health insurance plan; or,
--take my chances in the health insurance marketplace, and search for new plan to cover me and all my inadequacies.

I've only been without insurance one other time.  This was when I first graduated college and before the Affordable Care Act, which I also lovingly call, Obamacare.  Those were scary, desperate times for my kind--my kind being "people with preexisting conditions."  

Image from Indiewire

Some people like to rag on Obamacare. I try not to think about those people being cruel, privileged, never-had-a-problem-in-their-life, spoiled selfish D-bags.  I'm happy that Obamacare made it illegal for insurance companies to do what they did to me back in 2009, which was send me a couple of friendly notices letting me know I was just too damn unlucky in life/sick to qualify for their individual health insurance plans. 

So at that time I turned to COBRA, which graciously allowed me to pay about $800 every couple of months to stay on my parents' health care plan.  Did I mention that I'd just graduated from college?

Fast forward about 10 years and I found myself in a similar situation in September.  My insurance coverage for my new job wasn't set to start until 30 days after the beginning of my employment.  My coverage at my last company ended on my final day of employment and the paperwork to continue my benefits wasn't set to arrive at my house for another 10 days after I quit my job.  This meant that I was confronted with the dreaded....nightmarish...

GAP IN COVERAGE!!!

Image from Her Campus

To be continued...

**In the context of this blog post, uninsured means I was not paying for insurance coverage, coverage under my old plan had ended, I had not yet signed up for continuation of benefits and therefore had no proof of coverage under any plan.