We are not COBRA. For specific contract details about your current company policy, contact your health plan administrator.
CalCOBRA and PPOs: eligibility?
I have worked for twenty years in the San Francisco Convention industry. Approx. 2 yrs. ago, I suffered a fall at work, tore my ACL, and have since gone thru 2 years of lawyer-assisted fighting over Workmans Comp eligibility, case still pending.
Meanwhile, unable to do customary physical labor, my health insurance, based on hours worked, elapsed. I went onto COBRA, which itself is expiring as of the end of this March.
I was made aware of the CalCOBRA provision, but (of course) am having a difficult time understanding it, AS ARE MY HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN ADMINISTRATORS. They have generally been very helpful, but it seems everyone is struggling to figure it out.
They informed me that CalCOBRA IS ONLY AVAILABLE IF I WERE IN AN HMO PLAN (We have three: Kaiser, HMO (United of Omaha), and PPO, the latter of which is what I have been enrolled in. We were during that month (December) in an "open enrollment" period, so I could have moved over, but coulnd't find out from them or anyone else how it all worked. Now it's too late to change plans, and I find that even Kaiser won't insure me "for probably five years" with a pre-existing condition. (If I had opted to move to Kaiser in Dec. it might have been different.)
My MAIN question here is: Is it true or not that only health plan members enrolled in an HMO (as opp. to a PPO) are eligible for CalCOBRA? Because that is what my health plan administrators have told me, although it is clear that there is confusion all around.
Would you kinldy advise? And thank you so very much.