Lapsed Health Insurance

[ikeman]

We reside in Illinois and my father-in-law and mother-in-law recently had some financial trouble. Deep in debt that had to sell their home and are poised to close on the December 27th. This will pay the majority of the bills and leave them with some money. However, they are both retired but do not have any pension plans, 401k, or other funds to help them with expenses. Their social security is their only source of income. All of us children had helped where we could, both financially and otherwise. Unknown to us they did not pay their health insurance and coverage has now lapsed. My father-in-law's health is suffering and he needs extensive testing for a proper diagnosis. We desparately need to find a way to get them health insurance to cover all of the testing. We have just begun to investigate different options, but if anybody out there can point us in the right direction, please do so.

Thanks.

 

[cbg]

How long ago did the health insurance lapse? I assume it was an individual policy and not a group?

 

[ikeman]

lapsed insurance

cbg,

They actually had group medical insurance through my father-in-law's employer. He had lost his job and then signed up for Cobra. At the time he was supposed to start making payments, his mental stability began to diminish and payments were never made. I guess the question is: Can they start cobra up again by making back payments?

If this is not possible is there an insurance plan out there that will accept them and not be too expensive? I know it sounds too good to be true, but if you don't ask you'll never find out.

 

[ellencee]

if your parents are receiving Social Security retirement benefits, do they not qualify for Medicare? and if their financial status is indeed quite low, they may qualify for Medicaid. I do not believe you will find a 'regular' insurance company that would not be cost prohibitive, including COBRA should it somehow be available. I suggest checking out the above mentioned insurances, Medicare and Medicaid.

 

[cbg]

The answer to whether or not COBRA can be reinstated depends upon how long ago this happened. As to individual insurance, that depends upon your state. Some states require that any company that sells group insurance must also sell individual insurance, but not all states have that requirement. Quite frankly, individual insurance tends to be costly; more so than COBRA, at least in my state. Try Fortis, Unum, CIGNA; I don't know if they all are offering individual policies still but they used to.