Retroactive coverage
Venting but also do i have any better options?
I left my job in December. My last day was scheduled for the 17. They didn’t need me to come on so let me leave the 15th (in hindsight fuck that and them i should have just called out sick). I called Kaiser on the 16th and they said my plan was still active. I didn’t get my last paycheck till 12/29. Every other job I’ve had health insurance through was covered through the end of the month after leaving and i stupidly assumed this was the same especially since the cost was deducted from my paychecks and I was still owed one. On 12/12 i paid for my own Kaiser coverage starting 1/1.
On 12/17 I got hit by someone else at fault and car was totaled. A cop saw it happen and pulled over/ called it in. I seemed fine and he didn’t call paramedics but an ambulance showed up. I didn’t want to go at first cuz F an ambulance bill but the cops said I’m not at fault so other guy should be covering it anyways and they’re like “do you have health insurance” and i said yeah ive always paid premium Incase anything ever happened. So they said yeah it was smart to get checked out to be safe because with adrenaline I might not feel stuff till later.
They took me to the hospital 1/4 mile down the street and did some x-rays. This was the middle of no where small town the place was empty they did a few x-rays ran some tests and said fine. Such a small town i literally couldn’t get an Uber or taxi or any transportation and had to walk from the hospital across town and under the freeway to get to my totalled car to get stuff out.
Anyways after the accident i was dealing with car insurance etc and got the ambulance bill and sent that info to them. They gave me 1k to cover medical. I contacted ambulance company to have them bill my insurance and they got back to me last week saying i wasnt covered. Turns out my old job retroactively adjusted my last day of coverage to have it end 12/16. HR won’t make adjustments.
I had been going to other Dr appointments, picking up prescriptions etc after the crash and was being told the whole time I was still covered because on Kaiser’s end I was.
So now that i found that out this week- i just got another $6k bill in the mail today for x-rays and “trauma team” from 12/17
After old job told me the other day they can’t make adjustments and cover me for 2 more days- i tried to set up Cobra incase the other guys insurance doesn’t cover me (we are waiting for them to respond) $700/mo which is stupidily expensive but seems like no other options. Call my old job’s medical coverage people to sign up for cobra and they’re like yeah well “if you sign up today you have to be covered through today” so i would pay for 2 months aka $1400.
Literally fucking bs there is no way for me to just pay the rest of the December coverage at my usual rate.
I have been paying for premium coverage monthly since turning 21. I had kaiser and already set up the new plan to start 1/1. It is so ridiculous that there are technicalities like this for people to get fucked over in the gap. I didn’t even know at the time i was no longer covered. I would not have been driving when i was if i knew i was not covered (moving cross country) and i would have waited until after the 1st to make other appointments and pick up prescriptions.
Tldr: Are there really no options for me to retroactively cover a 2 week gap without paying 2 months of inflated bs cobra through today?
