A big problem here in MA is the ‘Mandatory Health Insurance’ - my biggest peeve with Mitt Romney. My understanding is that unless you are on unemployment $, you cannot get any help with the COBRA premiums.
A former colleague of mine, who is consulting is paying nearly $500/month COBRA for health insurance just for himself. If you shop around, the plans aren’t really that much cheaper, and the coverages suck.
So unless you get a full time position with benefits, you get screwed here in MA.
Oh - the associated paperwork regarding the health insurance for the MA state income tax form is 2-3 pages. Ridiculous!
I'm sure hubby is going to love that. We joined up with the Commonwealth Care program, when hubby left his job a couple of years ago, to do some private research. We were on COBRA at first, then the premiums were about to go up to $18K a year. We got Harvard Pilgrim through the Commonwealth Care program, and not a minute too soon, because I developed some cardiac problems at Christmas in 2007, and had to have a very expensive procedure done last Fall. I'm thankful we had the coverage.
We were mighty annoyed, when we renewed last Dec., that we were forced to get Prescription Drug Coverage. We didn't want it, and were willing to pay out of pocket for meds. But we didn't have a choice, so we're paying $4K a year, when we won't use near that many meds, even at the retail price! I'd rather have put that money in our HSA to pay for the meds we need.
The worst part about the insurance, though is just trying to figure out what we pay, and what we don't. Hubby is a PhD Statistician, doing research in obscure Math problems, and even HE can't figure it out. I'm sure many folks are willing to accept 'government' health care, because they're so dang frustrated trying to navigate the strange ebb and flow of their health insurance providers.