Hi everyone, this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda
with Ignition Time. In this video I
want to help my viewers and subscribers
who have lost health insurance. According
to a recent news report,
millions of individuals have lost health
insurance as a direct result of this pandemic.
In fact, up to 12 million Americans may have lost their
employer sponsored
health insurance again as a direct
result of the pandemic because you lost
your job or because you got furloughed.
In this video i'm going to give you some
information and go over some of your
options. I will also provide you with a link in
the description section to an article
which will provide you with additional
resources on how you can go out there
and get your health insurance if you
don't have health insurance. Now if you already
have health insurance my advice to you
would be to share this video
with someone who has lost health
insurance or is about to lose health
insurance so you can help them.
So with that being said let's get
started. Right now we have historically
high levels of unemployment
as many as 12 million Americans have
lost their health insurance since the
start of the year
according to a study by the economic
policy institute. In fact
i'll show you the study right here this
is a PDF file from the economic
policy institute and the headline reads
health insurance
and the pandemic related shock. What we
know so far about health insurance
losses and what it means for policy. But
i'll give you the bottom line
in this article. Basically what's
happening is a lot of individuals rely
on their employer across the country for
health insurance. That's just the way
things are.
So the shock of the pandemic has cost
millions of individuals
their ability to have health insurance
because this is a public health
emergency this is basically
a catastrophe for many people. Now many
people who've been laid off are already in
a very fragile state
because you know that you have no income
coming in and on top of that you lose
your health insurance and you can't
afford to
buy health insurance because it is so
expensive. So trying to get reinsured can
be very challenging, very overwhelming
which again
is why I want to give you some
information in this in this article.
Remember, as far as possible you do not want to
become uninsured. Because if you become
uninsured and you fall sick
and you need you know and you don't have
insurance, you know, the bills
could be significant.
The first thing you want to do is if you can
talk to somebody in your company's human
resource department
and you can understand when your
coverage technically ends. So if you have
the opportunity
to speak with someone in your company's
human resource department you want to
find out when
the coverage technically ends. There is
no real rule because it varies from one
company to another
and if you've been laid off it's
possible that your coverage ended the
day you were laid off.
It's quite possible that your coverage
may be continued for a few weeks
after you were laid off. iIt really depends
on your company so you do want to speak
with your company. But you need to start
doing the research so you can if need if
necessary transition to a new plan. Now if you've
been furloughed
instead of being laid off, if you've been
furloughed, there's a chance that your
coverage could continue. Again you do
need to speak with your company.
And if your employer does indeed allow
you to stay on the group plan
while you're not working you need to
clarify with your employer
how they are handling the employee
contribution because typically when
you're working with a company typically
and again this varies from one company
to another you contribute a certain
portion the employer contributes a
certain portion so let's say
your health insurance cost eight hundred
dollars a month for a single person or
twelve hundred dollars a month for a
family let's say you contribute 500
a month that's taken out of your
paychecks and the remaining comes out of
the you know the
the remaining is something the employer
covers as part of your benefits
you need to clarify with your employer
if you've been followed
what your what your portion is what your
portion of the contribution is and
that's very important in fact
let's take a look at this chart on your
screen here this shows you the employer
sponsored
health insurance coverage throughout the
country so you can see this chart
if the the darker sections correspond to
a higher level
of employer sponsored coverage so you
can see some states like new hampshire
57 percent wisconsin 57
some states have a significant portion
of employer
sponsored coverage whereas other states
have a very low portion of
employer-sponsored coverage let's take a
look at
new mexico for example that has 37
percent in other words
that's still you know 37 is still a
significant amount of employer sponsored
coverage
the bottom line is a majority of
individuals are dependent
on employers for their health insurance
and this these trends vary
throughout the country as you can see
again as you can see from this chart
on your screen here again the lighter
sections correspond to individual
correspond to states where the employer
sponsored health insurance coverage is
less and the darker portions correspond
to states where the employer sponsored
health insurance coverage
is more so some companies have actually
said that furloughed employees do not
have to pay their premiums
while they're out of work i mean that
makes sense if you're not getting a
paycheck
and you're furloughed how are you going
to pay your premium right so
you don't have to pay your premium if
you're followed but let me be clear
it's quite likely that when you go back
to work
or when you're called back to work and
for the sake of this particular
discussion let's make let's just assume
you're going to be called back to work
so i can make my point here if you're
called back to work when you're called
back to work
your company will most likely make you
pay that portion
your portion during the time that you
were furloughed because when you do get
back to work they'll say hey
you know you didn't pay your employee
contribution for so long but the health
insurance company still had to get paid
we paid your portion on your behalf
because if they don't pay it you'll lose
coverage
so you see the health insurance company
the payer doesn't care where the money
comes from
for them they just need to get paid so
your coverage doesn't lapse
so again it's quite possible that your
employer basically says hey
you know from april through september
you were followed you did not contribute
your portion
we paid our portion of your coverage and
we paid your portion so that the policy
would not lapse but now that you're back
you owe us x thousands of dollars so
just make sure
you know you keep that in mind because i
don't want my my viewers and my
subscribers to get a big shock
when they come back so just to make sure
you're aware of that also
navigating you know the health insurance
landscape and trying to
find coverage on your own can be
extremely challenging can be very
daunting
now keep in mind if you do have a
diagnosed condition like cancer like
lupus
or diabetes you may be able to get
support uh when it comes to making a
decision about a plan when it comes to
signing up for a plan
with the national patient advocate
foundation that's a national
patient advocate foundation and we
provide you with a link in the
description section below so you can get
in touch with that foundation you can
also consult with what's called as a
local
healthcare navigator again you'll be
provided with the links in the
description section below
generally if an individual is laid off
or if they are uninsured
they have three options to get coverage
the first option is what's called as the
cobra plan i'll give you that
information in just a second the second
is the healthcare the the affordable
care
act marketplace which is a subsidized
marketplace it's basically where you go
to the website and where you look for
health insurance plans
and how much you pay for a health
insurance plan through the through the
healthcare marketplace which is the
affordable care act subsidized
marketplace
depends on your income so if your income
is low the government will actually
subsidize
more of your more of your health
insurance i mean if you're living at or
below the poverty line the government
can subsidize a significant portion
as much as 80 90 percent of your health
insurance marketplace you will have to
contact
the health insurance marketplace for
specific eligibility requirements okay
so you'll need to get in touch with them
or you can also enroll in a program like
medicaid or depending on your age
medicare so in some cases you know if
your spouse is still working
let's say you're fortunate enough to
have your spouse still employed at a
place that does offer family coverage
you can request to join the group health
plan so that is another option
and you'll typically have to do this
fairly quickly so make sure you don't
delay as you're watching
uh this video now what is cobra cobra is
a consolidated omnibus budget
reconciliation act see i did it in one
shot i pronounced it
it allows individuals who work at
companies with 20 or more employees
okay so cobra allows individuals who
work at companies with 20 or more
employees
to pay to continue their workplace
insurance plan
for certain periods of time so let's say
your insurance plan cost
eleven hundred dollars a month you can
continue the plan as long as you pay for
it
the full amount for a certain period of
time and uh you know it
it can cost several hundred dollars a
month because again you're shouldering
the cost of the entire plan so most
people do find that
to be very very expensive but you if you
have an hsa account
a health savings account you can dig
into that money to pay for your cobra
plan
and that can have tax advantages for you
if you have an hsa account and if you've
set aside
money for an hsa account um so if you
don't know what an hsa account is look
it up on google
and you know i can't sort of uh discuss
the hsa account within the framework of
this video
but if you folks want i can do a
separate video on an hsa account
so um so basically if you if you stick
with your if you if you use the cobra
plan
then the advantage is you keep your
current plan you know you stick with
your current doctor
and that doesn't have to change but
again you'll have to pay for it
out of pocket with your own money on
your screen you'll see a chart
of individuals who are losing health
care coverage as a direct result of this
pandemic this is
a this is a surprising chart so these
this chart shows you job losses
from the pandemic you know millions of
individuals have lost their health
insurance this is a share of adults
without
health care coverage and now you can see
this in states across the country
new hampshire for instance is 11
idaho is 18 and some states have
significant
uh you know losses of individuals losing
their health insurance coverage
mississippi
is that 22 percent florida is at 25
texas is at 29 this is uh you know some
of these statistics are
are are unbelievable so now keep in mind
you have 60 days from the loss of your
job
to sign up for cobra and the coverage
will be retroactive from the time that
you were laid off
uh or if you know if you're in between
jobs uh if you're in between jobs you
could wait and see if you need care
and only enroll in cobra you know if you
really need to because you do have
60 days but if you do proceed with cobra
you should
you should have that money set aside
because it is going to get expensive and
you need to understand the exact
enrollment steps involved with cobra
remember this video is meant to give you
a starting point and i'll give you links
in the description section below this
video again is meant to give you a
foundation
for what you can do for most individuals
the affordable care act marketplace
might make the most sense
depending on where you live you can
access the federal marketplace or your
state marketplace
and if you lose your job you'll qualify
for what's called as a special
enrollment period uh which is 60 days so
so you know you need to keep that in
mind also many plans on the affordable
care act marketplace can get expensive
especially if you're unemployed
and the subsidies like i said earlier
based on annual income
so you know if you if you did uh you
know depending on income levels you get
a subsidy
any just keep in mind though that any
unemployment benefits that you're
receiving this is important
any unemployment benefits you're
receiving count as income so when you're
on the affordable care act marketplace
and they say what's your income
and you're getting i don't know i'm just
going to throw out a number three
thousand dollars a month
with you know some unemployment benefits
or something else you're doing whatever
this
three thousand a month is just a number
just a number uh you put in three
thousand dollars a month that's
considered your income and that'll then
determine whether you get a federal
subsidy and how much of a federal
subsidy you get so keep that in mind um
you need to fundamentally ask yourself
what is the maximum you can spend per
month
on insurance uh do you have any
predictable health care expenses like
regular medication
or con you know regular tests that you
need to take you then need to evaluate
how much a given plan is going to cost
you
not just the premium but also the
co-pays deductibles and co-insurance
expenses so
we will provide you with a link to a
calculator below from the national
patient advocate foundation
which will help you determine what your
costs will be on the health on the
affordable care act
marketplace so now keep in mind if you
do have certain doctors
uh that you want to see that you want to
continue to see
then you'll need to you know check with
your plan as to whether those doctors
are in network with that plan and if the
doctor is not in network
you'll have to ask your doctor to see if
they'll get in network with that plan so
you know there are whenever you change
health care coverage there is a
possibility that you may need to change
doctors now
there is another option of switching to
medicaid let me show you a chart
on your screen which shows you the
expansion of medicaid
after the affordable care act so
remember the the affordable care act
uh you know facilitated the expansion of
medicaid
and all the all the states in blue
adopted
medicaid rather expanded medicaid under
the affordable care act so if you live
in one of the states in blue
medicaid was expanded and medicaid
essentially provides
coverage options it's one coverage
option for individuals who find it you
know who can't
qualify for cannot afford other options
like the affordable care act
or cobra or don't have employer
sponsored coverage so medicaid is indeed
an option
medicaid does have zero premiums in most
states
uh so you know medicaid can be the
preferred option you know if
if if you can't afford other plans uh
medicaid eligibility is based on monthly
income
monthly income this is important so even
if you've got you know
a sudden decline in income you could
become eligible for medicaid
in those months so that's something
important to keep in mind uh you could
sign up for medicare
if you want your employer's plan and you
if you're over the age of 65 so
there is that option and you need to
keep in mind that there are other plans
like short-term health insurance plans
and some you know different
independent plans out there but they're
not regulated by the affordable care act
so you know you may have other hidden
expenses over there
but the bottom line is you don't want to
wait until you're employed again to have
health insurance coverage
try not to have a lapse in your health
insurance coverage um
you can always cancel your plan you can
always get a plan and cancel it at any
time
the problem of course is we don't know
when we're going to get a job again
the purpose of this video for my viewers
and subscribers was to make sure that
as you look for a new job or
as you try and as you try and
re-engineer your skills
you know to to prepare yourself for the
future i'm hoping that most of my
viewers most of my subscribers can have
coverage
that's what this video is all about
having insurance coverage is very
very important so please do your best to
have coverage
and here let me switch my glasses i've
been switching glasses lately
but having coverage is very important
and i do want my viewers and my
subscribers
to have health insurance coverage and
hopefully this video gave you a good
starting point about what you can do
next
my name is dr nitin shoda thank you so
much for watching i really appreciate
you
um if you don't know anything about me
check out my introductory video i have
the
the honor the privilege the fortune of
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ignition time thank you so much for
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next video of ignition time take care
bye
you
