#1 thing to do when switching jobs in the middle of your wife's chemo treatments.
Be 100% sure on insurance. The HR department at my old job let me know that since I was terminating employment with them on the 1st that their insurance would not cover me through the month of September. Had I been employed with them on the 2nd, they would have had to cover me for the month. So, just to double-check when my insurance would kick in with my new employer, I made a few calls. After making a call to BCBS (the insurance provider), they said I would have to speak with the HR person at the new employment. I made the call to them and asked if the insurance would start the day of my first employment. She asked what day my first day would be and from that, she said that there is a 60-day waiting period on insurance and that the insurance from my new employer would kick in on December 1st. Talk about a shocker. Dollar signs and big debt flew before my eyes knowing that Jenn has 2 treatments left (at about $9K a pop) and then radiation. Holy crap! Apparently we didn't talk to the right people or ask the right questions. So, I made the call to Jenn and let her know. She was pretty calm about it and said we'll get throught it somehow. So, after the initial shock wore of and a few more calls were placed, we found out that we could do a program called COBRA. It will let us pay the full premium that my previous employer was paying and get the same benefits from the insurance for a 90-day period. This means an $807 insurance payment for the next 3 months, which compared to the alternative isn't so bad...
