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COBRA in Indiana

For those who do not know, COBRA has nothing to do with the snake. COBRA has everything to do with health insurance. COBRA allows for the continuance of medical insurance after a divorce. One spouse can keep coverage with the other spouse's insurance company for a monthly payment. The idea was to avoid the penalty of pre-existing conditions. Today's Indianapolis Star has an article about COBRA and Hoosiers.

From my experience, Ron Pollack hits the nail on the head:

In Indiana, the average monthly COBRA premium for a family is $1,075, according to a report released Friday by Families USA, a Washington-based consumer-advocacy group. That cost is almost 84 percent of what an unemployed person gets in monthly unemployment benefits, which average $1,287 for a jobless worker taking care of a family. Through COBRA, ex-workers can get group health insurance for up to 18 months in most cases.

"COBRA health coverage is great in theory and lousy in reality," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.

Individual COBRA coverage in Indiana averaged $376 a month, or about 29 percent of the monthly unemployment benefit paid to a single person.

Full post as published by Sam Hasler's Indiana Divorce & Family Law Blog on January 10, 2009 (boomark / email).