Health insurance lapsed due to employer fraud. How to get medications while in transition?
Check with the manufacturer of the name brand medication.  Most of them have programs to help people who need their medication but can not afford it.  They may be able to send you coupons for discounted or free medication.  You can go to a free clinic.  If your income is low enough the free clinic will provide medicine until you can get back on insurance.   You can do what alot of people who work hard and do not have insurance do and pay for it outof pocket.  You can talk to your doctor and see if there is an alternative to the expensive medicine that your insurance used to pay for. It may not be as effective or may have other side affects but many people are forced to go with these alternatives.   You situation is certianly unfortunate but also not terribly uncommon.  You probably also have recourse against the former employer but if they commited fraud, and faked your insurance there probably is not alot of money to recoup.  If it was a person who commited fraud then you may be able to get a judgement against them that would survive bankruptcy and the business but it will probably be at least 5 years before you can recoup anything possibly much longer and your attorney will probably not take it on contingency. Your doctor may also have free samples available. You could call, explain your situtation and ask to see if they have any free samples.
The article briefly mentioned Martin Shkreli and Daraprim, which is an excellent extreme example of the underlying flaws in the American medical market. Hide the true costs of various necessary medications behind multiple walls of insurance pools and government subsidy and pretty soon the sky's the limit for these companies: https://rebelnews.com/willparke/the-drama-of-daraprim-and-the-for-profit-medicine-industry/ "For the person being hired this is a tricky situation. Specially with the new laws. There is no real magic number that can be applied as a lot will depend on what benefits you want, and what is actually available. This will really shift the spectrum quite a bit.  Under the affordibal care act, everyone has to have insurance or pay a ?fine? (were really not sure what to call this yet) but there are two provisions that really mess with the numbers you look at as an employee.  First, the cost of heath care has skyrocketed. So the same benefits that you had 5 years ago now cost maybe 10-15 times as much as they used to. This gets swept under the rug a bit because the ""main costs"" of insurance has only increased a tiny amount. What this actually comes down to is does your new ACA approved heath plan cover exactly the benefits you need, or does it cut corners.  Sorry this is complicated, and I don't mean it to come off as a speech against the ACA so I will give an example. My wife has RA, she really has it under control with the help of her RA doctor. This is not something she ever wants to change. Because she has had RA from the age of 15, and because it's degenerative, she doesn't want to spend 5 years working with a new doctor to get to the same place she is with her current doctor.  In addition, the main drugs she takes for RA are not covered under any ACA plan, nor are the ""substitutions"" that her doctor makes (we are trying to have kids so she has to be off the main meds, and a couple of the things this doctor has tried has been meds that reduce inflammation, are pregnancy safe, but are not for the treatment of RA) You now have to take into effect rather the cost of health insurance + the cost of the things now not covered by the heath insurance + the out of pocket expenses is worth the insurance.  Second the ACA has set up provisions to straight up trick those people that have lower income and are not paying close attention. When shopping for insurance, they get quotes like ""$50 a month"" or ""$100 a month"". The truth is that the remainder of the actual cost is deducted from their tax returns. This takes consideration, because if you thing your paying $50 a month for insurance but your really paying $650 then you need to make sure your doing your math right. Finally, you need to understand how messed up things are right now in the US with heath care. Largely this goes unreported. I'm not really sure why. But in order to do this I will have to give examples.  For my wife to see a specialist (her RA doctor) the co-pay is $75. So she goes to the doctor, he charges her $75 and bills the insurance $200. The insurance pays the doctor $50. With out insurance, the visit costs $50.  At first you want to blame the doctor for cheating the system, but the doctor has to pay for hours of labor to get the $50 back from the insurance company. From the doctors perspective it's cheaper to take the $50 then it is to charge the insurance company. And by charging the insurance company he has no control over the cost of the co pay. He essentially has to charge more to make the same money and the patient gets the shaft in the process. Another example, I got strep throat last year. I went to the walk in clinic, paid $75, saw the doctor got my Z-Pack for $15, went home crawled in bed and got better. My wife (who still had separate insurance from before the marriage) got strep throat (imagen that) went to the same clinic, they charged her $200 for the visit ($50 co-pay) and $250 for the z-pack ($3 co-pay). The insurance paid the clinic $90 for the visit and $3 for the drugs. Again the patient is left out in this scenario. In this case it worked better for my wife, unless you account for the fact that to get that coverage she had to pay $650/month.  My point is that when comparing costs of heathcare with insurance, and without out insurance, its often times much cheaper for the practices to have you self pay then it is for them to go through the loops of trying to insurance to make them whole. This creates two rates. Self pay rates and Insured rates. When your trying to figure out the cost of not having insurance then you need to use the self pay rates. These can be vastly different.  So as an employee you need to figure out your cost of heath care with insurance, and your cost of heath care without insurance. Then user those numbers when your trying to negotiate a salary. The problem is that there is no magic number to use for this because the cost will very a lot. For us, it was cheaper to not have insurance. Even with a pre-existing condition that takes constant attention, it's just better if we set aside $500 a month then it is to try to pay $750 a month. That might not hold true for everyone. For some people or conditions it may be better to pay the $750 then to try to handle it themselves.  So for my negotiations I would go with x+$6,000 without insurance or x+$4,500 with insurance.  Now as an employer it's a lot simpler. Usually you have a ""group plan"" that offers you a pretty straight $x per year per person or $y per year per family. So you can offer exactly that. Salary - $x or Salary - $y. AS a starting point. However this is where negotiations start.  If your offering me $50,500 and insurance, I would rather just have $57,000 and no insurance. Of course your real cost is only $55,000 cause you don't care about my heath care costs only about insurance costs. So you try to negotiate down towards $55,000 and no insurance. But that's not good enough for me. So I either go else where and you loose talent, or I accept $50,500 and insurance (or somewhere in between)." "Like most forms of insurance, health insurance is regulated at the state level. So what is available to you will depend greatly upon which state you live in. You can probably find a list of insurance companies from your state's official website. Many states now provide ""insurance of last resort"" for individuals who can't get insurance through private insurance companies. You can try looking into professional and trade associations. Some offer group insurance plans comparable with COBRA coverage, meaning you'd get a group discount and benefits but without the benefit of an employer paying 30-80% of your premiums. As a software developer you may qualify for membership in the IEEE or ACM, which both offer several forms of insurance to members. The ASP also offers insurance, though they don't provide much information about it on the public portions of their website. These organization offer other benefits besides insurance so you may want to take that in to consideration. The National Federation of Independent Business also offers insurance to members. You may find other associations in your specific area. Credit Unions, Coops and the local chamber of commerce are all possible avenues of finding lower cost insurance options. If you are religious there are even some faith based non-insurance organizations that provide medical cost sharing services. They depend upon the generosity and sense of fairness and obligation of their members to share the burden of medical expenses so their definitely not for everyone." Your situation may be different if your employer contracts with a different company to manage these benefits (or manages them themselves), but I'll give you my experience. My employer contracts with WageWorks. I log on to the WageWorks site, select commuter options from a predefined list, e.g. public transit passes, gas debit cards, parking passes, etc. and the cost of my choices is automatically deducted from my paycheck each month, up to the limit. WageWorks either sends me whatever I purchased in the mail or reloads the card automatically, and the process continues each month. In my case, I couldn't use this to purchase a ticket for someone else, but I could choose the subway option for myself and let another person use it. Historically the advice was to buy the best policy possible (not cheapest), at the lowest price, with the highest benefit.  The cost relative to the benefit is very cheap, and your much more likely to use disability than life insurance (for instance).  It is usually cheaper to pay for it with after tax dollars than to buy more insurance. In theory, you want to buy enough disability to replace 100% of your after tax income -- or more since there is no inflation protection built into most policies.  Insurance companies often will not sell this due to moral hazard -- although you may be able to combine policies to reach 80% or so.   Keep in mind that you will need to continue to save / invest if you are on long term disability, since most policies cease payment at 65 or when your eligible for Social Security.  In addition, your expenses often rise due to the increased medical expenditures, possibly needing COBRA / private health insurance, etc. As others have pointed out, post-tax dollars are what you'll use.  Just as a quick note, as you'll be using post-tax dollars; in the past, I've refused to take contractor plans because they almost always are inferior to what I've been able to get off the private exchange ehealthinsurance.  A few people have written excellent articles on Get Rich Slowly here and here about them in detail if you want more information. Generally, contractors (and sometimes employees) are offered a few plans (3-4), and this health exchange gives you a little more freedom to pick your plan, which in your situation may help.  It isn't always cheaper, but depending on your needs, you may obtain a better deal. Forgot to add this: this option has also made switching jobs easy as well since I don't have to pay COBRA.  While it depends on the situation, this can sometimes come out significantly cheaper.  For instance, if I were to take the employer health plan next year, I would lose ~$450 a month, whereas the private exchange option is ~$300.  But, if I were to switch jobs, decide to opt for self-employment, or a layoff, the COBRA would be even higher than ~$450. Another source of insurance can be through the working spouses employment. Some companies do provide free or low cost coverage for spouses without a need for a physical exam. The risk is that it might not be available at the amount you want, and that if the main spouse switches companies it might not be available with the new employer. A plus is that if there is a cost it is only a one year commitment. Term insurance is the way to go. It is simple to purchase, and not complex to understand. Sizing is key. You may need to provide some level of coverage until the youngest child is in high school or college. Of course the youngest child might not have been born yet. The longer the term, the higher the cost to account for the inflation during the period of the insurance. If the term expires, but the need still exists, it is possible to get another policy but the cost of the new term policy will be higher because the insured is older. If there are special needs children involved the amount and length may need to be increased due to the increased costs and duration of need.   Don't forget to periodically review the insurance situation to make sure your need haven't changed so much a new level of insurance would be needed. I don't have preexisting conditions. I am only speaking of how *my own personal* healthcare situation got worse because of the ACA.   I did used to use the dental and vision portions of my company-provided insurance regularly but I don't have that as part of my ACA insurance because again, it is unaffordable. Look for discounts from a health insurance provider, price club, professional memberships or credit cards. That goes for a lot of things besides health memberships.  My wife is in a professional woman's association for networking at work.  A side benefit is an affiliate network they offer for discounts of lots of things, including gym memberships. The insurance company is must assume you do have a preexisting condition you are unaware of.  The reason for that is that Affordable Care Act precludes the Insurance company from denying coverage of them if you do.  Insurance companies are businesses.  They are in business to make money(unless you have a nonprofit insurer).  They can not do that if you can buy insurance only when you need for them to pay out.  So even though you may not have a preexisting condition, they are precluded from requiring an examination that would detect the most expensive preexisting conditions (hidden cancers, neurological, autoimmune disorders).  So the companies must do what takes business sense and either deny you coverage or charge a rate that covers the risk they would be forced to take.   In your question on travel there was a response that suggested you get international health insurance instead of travel health insurance that would be considered credible coverage.  You are trying to save money which on a personal level is a good idea.  However that is against the societal and business need that you maintain health coverage during your healthy times to cover the costs of those who need expensive treatment.  So you will be monetarily penalized should you choose to reenter the society of insured people.  Once you have paid the higher rate for up to 18 months you should be able to get a better policy for people who have had continuous coverage.  Alternately you may be lucky enough to start working for a company that provides health insurance with out requiring continuous coverage. "I was in the health insurance game for 10 years and never heard of this until the Affordable Care Act came about.  To my knowledge, there is no rule or regulation prohibiting it, however trying to get an insurer underwrite that risk is extremely unlikely. It's the same reason why you don't see AAA offering health insurance. There isn't a contractual relationship between the church and their constituents, so no underwriter worth their salt would put a reasonable price on that risk.   Members can easily come and go, and since insurance through your employer is still the dominant distribution channel for health insurance, it would be seen as an adverse risk, meaning that people who couldn't get it through ""normal"" channels must be getting it through the church, which it would then be assumed that this person applying for coverage is an ""adverse risk"" or someone who is abnormally unhealthy.  There are faith-based healthcare reimbursement programs that are NOT health insurance and do not satisfy the ACA required minimum coverages. From what I've seen and read, it's basically members of the religion or faith that pay money into the system (like paying an insurance premium) and they elect a board that basically evaluates each claim and pays or doesn't pay it, either partially or in full. While this is a nice way to get your bills paid, odds are it won't cover your $300,000 cancer treatment or your $50,000 cesarean section birth." You have several options: If they refuse the second option, and the incident has already happened look on the HSA website for the form and procedure to return a mistaken distribution. I have used the two options with all our medical providers for the last 3 years. Some preferred option1, some preferred option 2, but none refused both. One almost did, but then reconsidered when they realized I was serious. While there is an April 15th deadline to resolve the mistake, I have found that by requesting the provider accept one of the two options the number of mistakes is greatly reduced. Co-Pays. I know, with good medical, that's just $10-$20. Acupuncture, Chiropractic Care (if not paid by your plan) Eye Exam, often not covered so well.  Eye Glasses. Often far higher than the plan pays. Over the counter drugs (update - starting 2011 these can only be reimbursed if they are prescribed, probably more trouble than it's worth), cold medicine, band-aids, ace bandages, heating pad. Birth control (condoms, foam, sponges, if you are worthy)  Any of those work for you? Note, regulations permit the FSA administrator to allow up to $500 to rollover to the next year, check if your plan permits this. "Following up on this, here is what I did. First, I called my benefits provider.  They had documentation of my election over the phone, which then allowed them to retroactively fix the problem. Had they not had this documentation, I would have been out of luck. Second, the next step for ""fixing"" occurred when I received my W-2 for this position. This W-2 mistakenly showed the amount for my medical FSA in box-10 of my W-2 as the same dependent care FSA. This requires calling/emailing my benefits and payroll department to get an updated W-2..." An important risk is that the government may decide to change the rules. For example, prior to 2011, over the counter drugs like aspirin, Tylenol, Nyquil, etc. were eligible expenses. You could use your HSA money to buy as much as you wanted. Beginning in 2011, those rules changed. Now, if you want to spend your HSA money on Tylenol, you need a prescription for it. The value of HSA dollars was diminished in the sense that the universe of eligible expenses was diminished. No one knows what the HSA rules will be in the future. What will be eligible expenses? Who will be eligible providers? What kind of compliance paperwork will be required? What kind of fees will be imposed? Personally, I'm a great believer in HSAs. I've saved in one for years. But remember that the government makes the rules regarding their use. They've changed the rules to the detriment of HSA owners at least once; I won't be surprised if it continues.