Laid off - what are my options?

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I just got laid off today. My insurance was partially covering my procedures and now I only have insurance for the next two weeks. We were planning on doing IVF at the end of the month. i’m at Shady Grove in Rockville. I feel so overwhelmed…….

[Anonymous]

Do you have access to COBRA? It might be worth it to keep your insurance for another couple of weeks.

Other than that, what does your spouse's insurance cover? You losing your job is a "qualifying event" to enroll in his insurance.

[Anonymous]

I also live in Maryland if that makes a difference

[Anonymous]

Get insurance through the marketplace. All policies should cover IVF.

[Anonymous]

Call ART Risk and have them find you a policy that will cover your fertility treatments. 21:01 is incorrect that all policies cover IVF.

[Anonymous]

Switch to your spouse's insurance. At least you weren't mid-procedures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switch to your spouse's insurance. At least you weren't mid-procedures.

My husband doesn’t have any fertility coverage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call ART Risk and have them find you a policy that will cover your fertility treatments. 21:01 is incorrect that all policies cover IVF.

Thanks, I will contact them tomorrow. Are there policies that cover 100%?

[Anonymous]

MD has a state law requirement to cover IVF so I think the marketplace policies do cover it?

[Anonymous]

Look into COBRA.

[Anonymous]

He should be giving you an exit meeting covering your health care options, including COBRA coverage.

[Anonymous]

OP here. sorry i don’t know much about insurance.

Question: if I use COBRA (which is $700/month for me), how do i apply for the Maryland IVF mandate?

[Anonymous]

Pay the cobra for a few months! Biggest regret i had unlimited fertility coverage several years ago, got laid off mid cycle and “took a mental break”. The cost of 3-4 months of cobra where we could have banked embryos pales in comparison of what we have spent OOP the last 5 years to get our DD’s. Trust me on this.

[Anonymous]

COBRA (if I am not mistaken) is you continuing your existing insurance for up to X time period. It's more expensive because you don't have employer participation, but employer has to keep you on.

So it isn't a kind of insurance, it is a federal mandate that makes companies keep you on their policy as long as you pay the full price.

So definitely do Cobra unless you can find something comparable for a better price.

[Anonymous]

Either sign up for cobra or look into the exchange policies. You don't need to apply for the mandate. BCBS as well as Kaiser covers a lot of the costs of ivf. The only problem with Kaiser is that you need to go thru their system to get approved before starting at sgf