At the time my wife and I bought our first house, I was working as a car salesman and making good money. We just found out that my wife was pregnant with our second child, and things were looking very good for us.
Apparently, the company I worked for had been in trouble for a while but no one except the boss knew it. Revenue had been dropping for several months, but the staff was unaware of the problem. The first sign of trouble came when the boss started making some spending cuts around the office: no more free coffee; no company cars for the salesmen; different type of light bulbs around the building; different supplies in the restrooms. The boss finally told us about the problems and told us that even with the spending cuts the bottom line was still in trouble. He said instead of laying off employees, he would cut back on work hours for office and sales staff and his managers would have a choice of a pay cut, reduced hours or leaving the company. One manager chose to leave, and he wasn't replaced.
This problem went on for about a four months. One day the boss told us instead of laying off employees, he had no choice but to cancel health insurance for all of us. This was bad news for me because my wife was five months pregnant. Without that insurance, we would have some pretty expensive bills to pay for prenatal care and hospital bills for the delivery. One option for us was COBRA insurance where we pay the full premium to keep the insurance going. Another option was to find another job where the insurance coverage was from an HMO because HMOs cover pre-existing conditions. One way or the other I had to have insurance coverage for my family.
I couldn't find another job, so for a little more than $450 a month I bought the COBRA insurance to cover the whole family. We considered only covering the pregnancy, but we worried what would happen if one of us got injured or sick and ended up in the hospital. That COBRA payment was a real strain on us financially, but we restructured our budget, cut out some unnecessary spending and used credit cards, and we made it OK.
It turned out to be a good thing that we got the COBRA insurance for the family. Our little boy ended up hospitalized for several days with a high fever, and I got hurt doing some maintenance around our house and had to go to the emergency room. Those hospital bills would have been much more than what the insurance cost us for four months. We had a very small co-payment for these two incidents, and the insurance covered everything else.
I'm still working for the car dealership, and my company still doesn't offer health insurance. Fortunately, we are covered under the insurance for my wife's job. With two small kids we would like for her to stay home and take care of the house and family and maybe baby-sit a couple of other children, but we need to have her health insurance.
Apparently, the company I worked for had been in trouble for a while but no one except the boss knew it. Revenue had been dropping for several months, but the staff was unaware of the problem. The first sign of trouble came when the boss started making some spending cuts around the office: no more free coffee; no company cars for the salesmen; different type of light bulbs around the building; different supplies in the restrooms. The boss finally told us about the problems and told us that even with the spending cuts the bottom line was still in trouble. He said instead of laying off employees, he would cut back on work hours for office and sales staff and his managers would have a choice of a pay cut, reduced hours or leaving the company. One manager chose to leave, and he wasn't replaced.
This problem went on for about a four months. One day the boss told us instead of laying off employees, he had no choice but to cancel health insurance for all of us. This was bad news for me because my wife was five months pregnant. Without that insurance, we would have some pretty expensive bills to pay for prenatal care and hospital bills for the delivery. One option for us was COBRA insurance where we pay the full premium to keep the insurance going. Another option was to find another job where the insurance coverage was from an HMO because HMOs cover pre-existing conditions. One way or the other I had to have insurance coverage for my family.
I couldn't find another job, so for a little more than $450 a month I bought the COBRA insurance to cover the whole family. We considered only covering the pregnancy, but we worried what would happen if one of us got injured or sick and ended up in the hospital. That COBRA payment was a real strain on us financially, but we restructured our budget, cut out some unnecessary spending and used credit cards, and we made it OK.
It turned out to be a good thing that we got the COBRA insurance for the family. Our little boy ended up hospitalized for several days with a high fever, and I got hurt doing some maintenance around our house and had to go to the emergency room. Those hospital bills would have been much more than what the insurance cost us for four months. We had a very small co-payment for these two incidents, and the insurance covered everything else.
I'm still working for the car dealership, and my company still doesn't offer health insurance. Fortunately, we are covered under the insurance for my wife's job. With two small kids we would like for her to stay home and take care of the house and family and maybe baby-sit a couple of other children, but we need to have her health insurance.
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