Losing your Job? Get covered fast! Spend your FSA!

If you’ve just lost your job don’t hesitate to start looking for new coverage. Use your old plan to its fullest extent, but don’t overdo it or it could effect your new coverage. Your new coverage will be higher than before of course, unless you find a new job, but it will be significantly less if you avoid overspending your accounts when you lost your job.

Make SURE to spend you FSA’s (Flexible Savings Account) because it will not transfer to another account like an HSA (Health Savings Account). Don’t let your employer take off with your hard earned money!

According to Ray Hainer

Under HIPAA, if you go without health insurance for 63 days or more, you will be subject to a preexisting-condition exclusion. When you enroll in a new health plan, the insurer can exclude from coverage any health condition—cancer, heart disease, diabetes—for which you received treatment in the six months leading up to your enrollment. This exclusion period can last for up to 12 months (or 18 months if you join the health plan late), but you can offset it by producing your certificate of creditable coverage, which you remembered to ask for on day 1. If you can prove that you’ve had continuous health insurance for more than 12 months without a gap of 63 days or more, the new health plan will not be able to impose a preexisting-condition exclusion.

Make sure not to waste time getting that coverage! If you need help talk with a licensed health insurance agent and they can guide you through any of the frightening or tedious decisions you will need to make for your coverage.