Little did my husband know that after he retired he'd have a full time job following up with benefit center about his coverage. Medical, dental, vision was supposed to be retro to 12/1/20. HW messed up medical and now made the 2nd transaction error on dental.
I SMH......
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Guys, not sure why so many are considering Cobra for medical since Affordable Care Act is so much cheaper for better coverage and smaller deductible. (I currently pay less than $200 a month for myself and spouse) Depends on your state and income. I went with Cobra for Dental and Vision however because vision was not available on the ACA and the Dental was only slightly more and my current dentist recommended to stay with my current plan given the small $ difference. Also you can use your HSA for Cobra payments and other insurance if currently receiving unemployment.
FYI;
The IRS spells this out when insurance premiums are considered qualified medical expenses in IRS Publication 969:
Insurance premiums. You can’t treat insurance premiums as qualified medical expenses unless the premiums are for:
Long-term care insurance
Health care continuation coverage (such as coverage under COBRA)
Health care coverage while receiving unemployment compensation under federal or state law
Medicare and other health care coverage if you were 65 or older (other than premiums for a Medicare supplemental policy, such as Medigap)
If you have issues with Cobra, call the US Labor Department. Honeywell messed up my Cobra payments. I gave Honeywell several chances to fix it. Two weeks after contacting the Labor Department, it was corrected. COBRA falls under the US Dept of Labor not Honeywell.
I just retired and noticed the same issue...Honeywell is playing their employees as id–ts.... Whether it is the Cobra issue or your pension....Honeywell...the information SW company fails.....they are doing it on purpose....After 40 years of service...they treat you like Sh!t......so sad....
Honeyhell messes up on all fronts. Except when it comes to paying the E-level bonus.
I'll mess up until they finally rif me. Hit them where it hurts......
I had quite a few problems with the Benefits Center when I was on COBRA. There is no reason for Honeywell to make it easy for you. Since they don't care about current employees, why would they care about ex-employees? You have to persevere and continually follow-up, keeping documentation on everything. That's true for any of the benefits you are entitled to receive after leaving, not just COBRA.
My Cobra letter/paperwork never arrived. I called HI and after being on hold more than an hour I was able to sign up. I also signed up for automatic payments so they can not cancel me for non-payment. They have not drawn the first payment. In non-covid days the Cobra recipient has 45 days to make payment before cancellation. Again- No reminders you are on your own to manage this process. They make no excuses. Too bad, so sad. With new Covid laws you have 120 days to make sure payment is made without cancellation. Stay on top of this and verify each and every step.
I retired and went on COBRA coverage in July 2020 with no problems. It was a fairly seamless process for me.
Don't want to hear that, I'm taking the same road in e 5 months.