Insurance For The Future

[fj]

One day, pinkfish was on some local gay irc channel, just as mouse-season in our apartment was peaking and we had just returned two cats, after having had them for two weeks, to the original owner who had had a hard time parting from them, when someone wrote "I hope I find a good home for my cats before Friday before they have to go to the shelter." This is how we got Twinkie and Piruli  from pretty much a random stranger.

My car insurance is coming up. Fortunately I have time now to be online all day entering data about myself into web-forms, and calling my condo-insurance agent. The price-differences these businesses are quoting me are astounding for pretty much the same package, and they do not show you how their premiums are built up at all, making it very hard to make trade-offs. I used to, for example, not have medical coverage since I had very good medical insurance anyway through work. Now that will be over on Nov 26th, I have to wonder whether I want some coverage there in case of... I dunno, am I really not going to get COBRA? Or not have a job? Oh god. Is this why I can't get to sleep at night until 2 AM? Fortunately I don't have to be up early anyway, so I keep turning over in the dark and then shutting off my alarm at 1.30. Anyway, but what if I want medical expenses covered through the car people, how much a difference will that make in premiums? You just get a big number at the end and that is it. Big number.

I had a chat room on gay.com open in the background where people started saying what they were doing. I mentioned I was trying to save on car insurance, and so far a bare-bones Geico was the winner. You can see where this is going: I got an IM with a recommendation. Wawanesa Insurance, a bunch of Candians now offering in California. My contacts says they were good with claims too. I go to their form, enter stuff, get a quote and think, 600 bucks more than my lowest quote on Geico.

Then I realize the quote is per year. All the other quotes were for every 6 months. (Yes, I need to pay around $1200,- for insurance every 6 months here.) I can't purhase over the phone or web, I have to print out this form, but the form shows the structure of their premiums. I can make informed choices now? Huh? Is this a brave new world? And then just mail it off with the first check? OMG, you mean this will actually work?

Comments

get COBRA

[henare.livejournal.com]

(if you find yourself not working by then, that is). here's the deal--it's almost certainly the cheapest coverage you will find and gaps in coverage make for more trouble. if you keep COBRA for a long time and your eligibility ends then you sign up for Cal-COBRA (which lasts for a further 18 months), and then you qualify for HIPAA coverage (all at approximately the same rate as the COBRA coverage).

if you let coverage lapse then you have two options: privately-underwritten coverage (in which you will surely pay more money for fewer covered services) ... and if you get rejected for a historical or pre-existing condition, your last resort is the state insurance of last resort (basically, this is a minimal coverage for a *lot* of money).

insurance shopping of any sort sucks, though, for all the reasons you called out. my homeowner's insurance is through CSAA and lately i shopped around for other options and pricing was just ridiculous. (yes, i don't drive, but i belong to CSAA just for the insurance and occasional hotel discounting. if you ever drive in a crappy car with me the AAA will come and rescue us all!)

[jss]

Definitely get COBRA; the car-based medical insurance only applies for medical expenses incurred while in the car, not (e.g.) seeing a doctor or getting prescriptions filled for straining something at the gym or slicing open a finger chopping vegetables at home. COBRA rates are the employee portion plus the employer portion of your existing (D*sn*y) coverage, both of which should be in your current-year benefits paperwork, plus up to 2% as an administrative fee. COBRA premiums are deductible on at least your federal taxes (I don't know abotu CA state taxes; subject to income constraints: I think they have to exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income but IANATax Expert).

Regardless of insurance type, what's the premium schedule? COBRA tends to be monthly, and automotive tends to be semiannual, but is there a penalty or administrative fee for splitting payments (e.g., from annual to semiannual)?

[nipper-dawg.livejournal.com]

Get cobra. You can not be denied coverage if you have continual coverage. God forbid something happens between now and your next job, they can deny coverage for X as a pre existing condition for one year. If you have continous coverage, they can not deny coverage for X.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

COBRA isn't necessarily for everyone — in my case, it would have cost about the same as I now pay in rent, and 3x what I can get minimal coverage for by other means — but you and your locale are not me and mine. For example, I live in Massachusetts.

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

We used Wawanesa in California in the '70's (my parents' decision, as I was still half a decade away from the driver's seat of a car) and I remember my Mom really liked them. When I moved out to CA after college my Mom recommended I try them, but I was poor poor poor and chose another company which allowed higher deductibles. I think it was either State Farm or Allstate.

We have State Farm now and they're well below what Geico offered us.

As for Cobra, it's terrifically expensive, usually. Look into other options like Blue Cross which will offer coverage for catastrophes (emergency appendectomy, broken leg) with a high deductible but a low premium. You may prefer this to the high Cobra premium. They (Blue Cross, etc) will exclude any "pre-existing" conditions, though, often for the duration of the plan, so it may not be worth it.

Good luck. Annoying decisions to have to be making.

[phornax.livejournal.com]

GEICO is the scum of the earth, and not just for their television commercials. I haven't been able to forgive them since 1998 when they gave me a quote and explained that my rate was high since I lived at that time in a "bad neighborhood" of DC. Other neighborhoods were cheaper, I was told.

Uh, dumb-asses, didn't you think I'd do my homework before I called? The entire District of Columbia has the same insurance rates -- by law.

Just in case you haven't tried 'em yet ...

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I had GEICO car insurance for 20+ years, and was horrified to find that in Northern California, 21st Century Insurance would charge me just under half of what I'd been paying for GEICO. Same insurance limits and deductible, same term. Half the cost.

GEICO may be more aggressively priced in Southern California, but that's where Randy was living when he started using 21st ... and that's why he insisted I get a quote from them.

http://www.21st.com/

Re: Just in case you haven't tried 'em yet ...

[fj.livejournal.com]

Nope, more expensive than GEICO for me.