Or Is Your Health Plan Leaving You? 

You’d like to retire early – before age 65 when Medicare kicks in. If so, you may wonder how you’ll get medical coverage if your company doesn’t have a retiree plan. (Most don’t.)

Here are ways for you to get health care coverage:

• Buy an individual policy on the open market
• See if you can get coverage under a spouse’s program
• Continue the company’s coverage by using COBRA
• Enroll in MinnesotaCare (if eligible)
  
• Enroll in Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA) coverage
  

Individual policy. If you’re in good health, you can probably buy health care coverage that lets you pick and choose the type of services you need. This will cut costs (for example, eliminating maternity coverage). Contact the Minnesota Commerce Department at 651/296-2488 to find out about insurance companies licensed to sell health care insurance in Minnesota.

COBRA. This is a federal law that gives certain former employees and their dependents the right to temporary continuation of health coverage. You pay the premiums of 102 percent of the company’s group plan’s premiums. Coverage is up to 18 months, but may be longer – up to 36 months – for disability, death, divorce, or a spouse going on Medicare. When COBRA ends, Minnesota and federal law requires the insurance company, HMO or MCHA to allow you to continue with a conversion policy at reasonable rates. (There’s also a provision in Minnesota that allows COBRA continuation of life insurance.) In Minnesota, COBRA applies to employers of two or more employees (except for church or federal government employers) and Minnesota’s continuation period could be longer in certain circumstances.

Incidentally, if you do end up taking a new job, there is a law for both individual and group plans that limit exclusions for a pre-existing condition. It’s called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). It gives you credit for the number of months you were covered on your old plan. (New plans typically require 12 months of credit.) So you can go from group to group, group to individual or individual to group – or from Minnesota Care or Medical Assistance to group, individual or MCHA if you do it within 63 days.

For more about your COBRA rights, call the Minnesota Dept. of Commerce’s Insurance division at 651/296-2488 or toll-free 800/657-3602. A good Web site for COBRA tips is www.dol.gov/esba, then click on “Consumer FAQ’s on COBRA.”

MinnesotaCare. This subsidized health care is for lower-income Minnesota residents who have no access to affordable health insurance. See No Health Insurance, No Idea Where to Turn? for details.