NEWS

Working Short calls might affect your health insurance
September 04, 2010

FYI our members need to be careful when taking short calls if we are paying our own health insurance through COBRA and have the government subsidy on our COBRA payments. I was removed from the government subsidy because I worked 80 hours on a short call during June which made my hour bank over 144 hours which means I had regular 8th District insurance for the month of August when my hours were turned in by Quality Electric.

Anyone working after May 31 who is currently enrolled in the government COBRA subsidy will lose that benefit if their hour bank exceeds 144 hours because they are then covered on regular 8th District Heath Insurance for at least a month which resets the qualification period according to Sheryl at 8th district. Anyone who is considering taking a short call should first call 8th district and check how many hours are currently in their hour bank and then add to that to the 80 hours for the short call to see if they will exceed 144 hours. With that information they can make an informed decision if they will be money ahead taking a short call.

Because I let my hour bank exceed 144 hours my COBRA monthly payment will now go from 196.70 to 590.10 an increase of 393.40 per month times the 9 more months I would have been on the reduced payments means my insurance will now cost me an additional $3540.60 out of pocket through May when the government COBRA subsidy would have ended for me. The $1760 I made working the 80 hour short call just cost me $3540.60.