10 ms·

It's scary. I was laid-off this month due to COVID-19. Luckily, I am getting paid for one more month because of the WARN Act. I've been looking, but it has been

by hysan 6y ago

It's scary. I was laid-off this month due to COVID-19. Luckily, I am getting paid for one more month because of the WARN Act. I've been looking, but it has been difficult since I'm competing with all the more senior co-workers and peers who were also laid-off. So how is my budget? * I know that there will be a time gap between being able to apply for unemployment and receiving it. The unemployment systems in the US are still overwhelmed. * Since my wife is on my health insurance plan, COBRA is going to be very expensive. * We moved recently for my job, so a lot of the savings we had are already gone. We have some runway, but no where near enough to feel safe. We are one of those edge cases where we took a risk, it paid off and life was great, but it didn't last long enough for us save up again so things are looking grim. So finally... > Yet when I read Redditors talk about quarantine, you'd think everyone in the world was getting paid time off to play Animal Crossing at home or they live at mom's house rent-free. And it seems like it's this crowd that's likely to be pushing for staying in lockdown with no end in sight. We both still are 100% for maintaining the quarantine. No we are not living some relaxing lifestyle at home. I've been quite stressed out. However, I also know that I would never forgive myself if I contributed to breaking quarantine early and that caused a chain reaction of hospitals to be overrun again and leading to my parents, a relative, or an old friend to die because they could not get the proper treatment. There is a lot I want to rant about, but rather than that, I would like to leave these thoughts: Stop thinking of the solution as being so black and white. Lifting the quarantine isn't the only way to help everyone who has been impacted. For example, why not have the same government bodies that enacted the quarantine do something just as drastic to save those who were impacted? What other solutions are out there? Also, if lifting the quarantine leads to more deaths, then remember that there is an economic impact there too. Have you ever paid for a funeral? I have and at a young age too. It burned a hole in my savings. That set me back several years in saving and investing in myself. Imagine doing the same to the generation of young adults whose parents are in the risk factor group. Far too many of the comments I read, even on HN, are seeing things only through the lens of what politicians say. Outside of compiling raw statistics, I've seen very little independent thought on how to solve the current problems in society.

exhilaration 6y ago
Since my wife is on my health insurance plan, COBRA is going to be very expensive. Instead of COBRA, can you get on an Obamacare ACA plan? That might be much cheaper.
- malyk 6y ago
  you don't have to pay for cobra until you need it though, so you could get out spending $0, iirc.
  - mceachen 6y ago
    At least in CA, if you opt out of COBRA, you can't opt back in later.
    - brianwawok 6y ago
      Hum. In IL and IN you have either 45 or 60 days to accept or decline coverage (don’t quote me on exact number, do the research). It made the optimal short term insurance policy to be: Don’t fill out cobra paperwork to day 59 If not sick or total bills less than 2 months cobra payments, decline cobra. If sick and total bills > 2 months cobra payments, decide to accept coverage. Used this for like 5 job hops. Never had to opt in, but it seemed fine. Confirmed with HR several times that it would work as I said. After 2 months it starts to get gross. Likely want to get an emergency only plan.
      - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
        It's the same in CA in my experience. I guess people don't think about it b/c we're used to pre-paying for insurance and with COBRA there's a decent period of time to make a decision and you also pay for insurance the following month instead of paying for it prior to/during the month.
      - r00fus 6y ago
        I think your heuristics change if you happen to have an ongoing condition or family needing coverage (who may also happen to have costly out-of-coverage costs). This is the kind of mental gymnastics that would be completely avoided if we had even the most basic of universal coverage.

by hysan 6y ago

exhilaration 6y ago

Since my wife is on my health insurance plan, COBRA is going to be very expensive. Instead of COBRA, can you get on an Obamacare ACA plan? That might be much cheaper.

malyk 6y ago
you don't have to pay for cobra until you need it though, so you could get out spending $0, iirc.
- mceachen 6y ago
  At least in CA, if you opt out of COBRA, you can't opt back in later.
  - brianwawok 6y ago
    Hum. In IL and IN you have either 45 or 60 days to accept or decline coverage (don’t quote me on exact number, do the research). It made the optimal short term insurance policy to be: Don’t fill out cobra paperwork to day 59 If not sick or total bills less than 2 months cobra payments, decline cobra. If sick and total bills > 2 months cobra payments, decide to accept coverage. Used this for like 5 job hops. Never had to opt in, but it seemed fine. Confirmed with HR several times that it would work as I said. After 2 months it starts to get gross. Likely want to get an emergency only plan.
    - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
      It's the same in CA in my experience. I guess people don't think about it b/c we're used to pre-paying for insurance and with COBRA there's a decent period of time to make a decision and you also pay for insurance the following month instead of paying for it prior to/during the month.
    - r00fus 6y ago
      I think your heuristics change if you happen to have an ongoing condition or family needing coverage (who may also happen to have costly out-of-coverage costs). This is the kind of mental gymnastics that would be completely avoided if we had even the most basic of universal coverage.