Do I hold off my job search until 2014 no-pre-existing condition rules come into play?

[Paula Sims]

Hi there,
I'm thinking of looking for another job. Right now I have a good job, great pay, benefits (including 5 weeks vacation -- but that was after 25 years), but after being there almost 30 years, I'm being treated worse than yesterday's chicken soup. Some of it is my ego and others is that I'm yesterday's story and they've gone on to bigger and better staff. Any ideas I do bring forth, they're dismissed or I'm yelled at publicly. The other day I wished the boss a happy birthday and she turned around, showed me her palm and said "don't have time now". Geez, what a #$*)$*. Besides, it's not fun there anymore and it takes everything I have in my being to get out of bed to go in. Unfortunately, I'm the sole insurance carrier and we both have some serious pre-existing conditions.

Given that situation, am I better off dealing with the situation for another 6 months or so, waiting until pre-existings are a thing of the past, or go for it, hoping that the pre-existings don't matter.

I will still put my feelers out to see what's out there for me, but in terms of the insurance, I need to know where I can stand.


Thanks so much for the help


Paula

[Egnever]

1. Why wait?

I am not sure I get it.

If you interview and get a job you win no matter when it is.

[Paula Sims]

17. Thanks everyone for your help & support

I'm going to do it. I gave my heart & soul to that company to the point where I have none left. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be so I'm going to update the resume (sent it out to friends that have found new jobs so they can tell me how to update) and just see what's out there. Don't have to take it but I don't have to limit myself either -- and that's what I think I was doing.

I'll let you know how it goes

Paula

[uppityperson]

2. I am not sure if it is Fed or by state, but if you have insurance, then pre-existing doesn't count.

Check out how it is in your state.

[dkf]

4. If your new employer has a different insurance I think it may.

[uppityperson]

6. It depends on the state and how many employees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-existing_condition

Regulation of pre-existing condition exclusions in individual (non-group) and small group (2 to 50 employees) health insurance plans in the United States is left to individual U.S. states as a result of the McCarran–Ferguson Act of 1945 which delegated insurance regulation to the states and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) which exempted self-insured large group health insurance plans from state regulation. After most states had by the early 1990s implemented some limits on pre-existing condition exclusions by small group (2 to 50 employees) health insurance plans, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Kassebaum-Kennedy Act) of 1996 (HIPAA) extended some minimal limits on pre-existing condition exclusions for all group health insurance plans—including the self-insured large group health insurance plans that cover half of those with employer-provided health insurance but are exempt from state insurance regulation.[6]

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/pre-existing-condition1.htm

he Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was passed on July 1, 1997. While this act involves many aspects of health care, it has had a profound effect on the availability of health care in the United States. Thanks to HIPAA, there are rules limiting the maximum length of time a pre-existing exclusion can be applied in a group plan, and there are even ways in which you can reduce or eliminate this exclusion period altogether. Under the HIPAA guidelines, the maximum amount of time that you have to wait in order to get coverage for your pre-existing condition cannot exceed 12 months, or 18 months for late enrollees.

A year is a long time to wait for medical coverage, so HIPAA uses what is known as "credible coverage." This term refers to any health insurance you had before your new insurance plan, as long as it was not interrupted by a period of 63 or more days. This time period can be longer, depending on your state laws and the type of insurance plan you were on. Once you have proven that you have had uninterrupted insurance before your current plan, this insurance coverage can be credited toward any pre-existing condition exclusion you may have. In fact, if you had at least one year of group health insurance at one job and then received health insurance at a new job without a break of more than 63 days, the new health insurance plan cannot impose a pre-existing condition exclusion on you at all. If however, a break in coverage is greater than 63 days, all the health insurance coverage before the break is not counted toward your pre-existing condition exclusion period.

HIPAA placed limitations on the pre-existing condition exclusion -- and it also helps ensure that those with pre-existing conditions can get health care at all. So, you might have to live with a pre-existing condition exclusion period, but you can't be denied coverage in a group plan because of your health. In fact, not only does the plan have to cover you regardless of your health, it also can't charge you more than a co-worker who may be in perfect shape.

[dkf]

7. Yes. I think a common period is 6 months.

[sweetloukillbot]

11. There are rules

I think it depends if you do not have insurance, but a pre-existing condition. If you go from one job to another, it will transfer, but if you are unemployed and get a job and have a pre-existing, you can't get coverage on that condition for a few months. I don't remember exactly, but my wife got caught in it at one point in the past 5 years.

[Safetykitten]

13. Correct.

[karynnj]

10. I think as long as the gap is less than some (smal number) of months, that it is ok.

[MADem]

3. Nothing wrong with starting the process now. You need a resume, some leads, that kind of thing.

Start wrapping your head around the idea, and do like others have suggested--find out if where ever you're jumping to has good insurance and will cover you.

You need to be sure of that--if you are not covered in your new job, stick it out until you will be.

More importantly, start detaching your mind from giving a shit about that place. It sounds like you're being bullied in the joint. If people are yelling at you publicly or otherwise making you an object of scorn, complain to HR--they may not like you but they'll treat you with kid gloves, because then you can go back to HR and claim anything they do to you is retaliation for complaining about the bullying.

No one likes a lawsuit!

[mick063]

5. Pretty easy I would say

Break it down into manageable chunks.

Start adding weights on to the balance scale and see which way it tips.

Keep in mind your ability to keep your composure. I would personally crawl into a clam shell if my environment was as you describe. I do just fine keeping to myself. Let those "smart" people run the place and just do the job. I see the same thing at work on occasion. The young guys full of piss and vinegar, trying to make a name for themselves. Have at it I say. Assume the liability. Less stress on me. After 30 years, it is time for me to think about retirement. When asked for an opinion, I give it. I absolutely demand to be heard when safety is involved though.

What would stop you from seeking another job in 2014 regardless of what you do now?

[CK_John]

8. If your are over 50, your chances are almost zero at this point in this economy.

[LuvLoogie]

9. I don't know what you do, but

5 weeks paid vacation is huge, especially when you don't have it any longer. And no new employer is going to give that to you off the bat.

Seriously, you should stick it out until they fire you. Just do your job. No more, no less. You should have reached the age and a level of maturity to just let that shit roll off your back. 30 years?! What's another 5?.

If you are a public employee with a pension, you should move those funds if you can. Go to night school. You sound bored.

[Safetykitten]

12. Would'nt your plan at a new company before 2014 be grandfathered in?

[TexasTowelie]

14. They may be making the situation unbearable so that you will quit.

Stick it out and make them pay every penny of severance you can get and also collect unemployment. They tried the same crap on me when I broke my arm at the last job I held. Misery loves company so make certain that your bosses suffer as much as they are trying to make you suffer. I hated being in such a toxic environment, but at least I made those bitches suffer (the woman two levels above me ended up having a stroke and part of her skull was missing for about four months). Meanwhile, the morale for the rest of the employees went down the tubes since they knew that sometime in the future they would receive the same shitty treatment.

*I rarely use the term "bitch", but when I do it is most definitely applicable and justified.

[nobodyspecial]

15. You sound proud of this

"at least I made those bitches suffer (the woman two levels above me ended up having a stroke and part of her skull was missing for about four months)"

That is very sad.

[TexasTowelie]

16. No, I wasn't proud of it.

However, after spending 10 years with a company as an employee who helped avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines and contributed millions in profit it was disgusting that the company retaliated against me because I was on disability for two months. I was considered a model employee for that company for about eight of those ten years resolving issues while everyone else in the company was clueless as to know where to even begin.

If the company had fired me without providing the severance package that was guaranteed to me seven years earlier when the insurance company decided to exit the business, then I certainly would have sued them and an employment law attorney stated that I would have had a strong case against them. I stayed on a sinking ship working 70-80 hour weeks on salary without any overtime pay. I could have pursued other opportunities while there were other job positions in my line of work available instead of remaining loyal to that company (and the affiliated IT company that I was transferred into). I enjoyed working for the insurance company and got along well with the supervisors that hired me, but the IT company treated their employees like shit.

They added a lot of stress to my life with the bad will that they sent my way (even before I was injured). When I returned from being on disability insurance, they didn't ask how I was doing or even say "hello". The first thing they did when I returned was to take me aside and make it abundantly clear that they were going to make my life hell while I remained there. They had no sympathy for me and wanted me to quit so I would forfeit the severance package. When I returned back to work I discovered two issues that would have cost the insurance company that was in runoff millions of dollars if I had been a whistle-blower. The company was guilty of failing to pay taxes/assessments to the state of California and to the U. S. Department of Labor. The money I received in the severance package was about 2% of what it would have cost if I had revealed that information.

The "bitches" mistreated several other employees beside me--including driving a previous supervisor I liked to a stroke, having a man with cerebral palsy and a noticeable limp moving 50 pound boxes, and not paying overtime wages to a non-salaried employee. Considering the mistreatment that was given not only to me but to my colleagues, I didn't have much sympathy when karma bit the evil bitches in the ass. I've only hit the tip of the iceberg of the ruthless acts of these people so you might want to reevaluate what you call "sad". I was there--you weren't.