COBRA Strikes
Like all good Chicagoans, we are playing musical channels (no good reality shows). Bulls. Hawks. Bulls. Bulls. Still Bulls. And wondering when we’re going to hear about our COBRA coverage.
While I’m grateful someone thought to call it COBRA rather than its real name – Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 – I don’t really understand it and am not particularly in the mood to try.
All I know is that pretty much everyone at my local Dominick’s knows something is amiss in the Mawrence household and the pharmacist knows way more than he bargained for, after it was discovered that our insurance was cancelled the day after I was laid off from the Tribune.
We thought it went through the month and stupidly failed to tell both children not to get sick.
My daughter has bronchitis and was apologetic about it after I hung up with my husband at the pharmacy counter and apparently was a little too loud in discussing this current state of our affairs.
My son has a cold and must have conferred with his sister because he keeps saying he’s fine, which is really out of character.
It’s not like we can’t cover the cost of Amoxicillin. And apparently, COBRA will reimburse retroactively. It’s just that when you call HR to inquire about this and you are told that you might not want to make any doctor appointments for the time being, your first instinct is to have your daughter cough into the phone.
Other than that, I’m in the manic first phases of unemployment – with optimism that clearly outweighs reality and a strange adrenaline reserve that has me going to sleep at 2, waking up at 5, and not really caring all that much.
It’s as if I must spend every waking moment directed toward the job search or I’m a deadbeat. (Again, the Tuesday night American Idol/Biggest Loser exception applies here.)
And then there was my mother’s friend, who called today to say she heard the news about my job.
My mother passed away two years ago but I still speak to Virginia, who is in her upper-80s, has a better memory than I do and told me today she would miss seeing me in the paper.
“You can read my blog on-line,” I said brightly.
But at 87, she has no patience for a computer.
“I’ll print it out for you,” I said, but that offer just depressed both of us.
Maybe in my reinvention, I can reinvent another newspaper to hire me.
In the meantime, I’m going to go see about that Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.
Categories: Unemployment, Cobra, humor
Tags: Layoffs Hawks Chicago Tribune Bulls Melissa Isaacson
Melissa, you're tugging at heart strings now. The blogs from the last 2 days humanize what the Trib has chosen to view as an inhuman move.
I see Ch 2 let go of Joanie Lum and Howard Sudberry. It's as if level-headed reporting in any medium is being shunted aside for "faces" and "style". What do these outfits define as demographics? I mean I just barely fit into that 19-54 male section, do most guys my age really and truly go for afternoon sports radio hosts and paid assassins in the dailies? Can't we sit and read and watch and digest without bombast and sophomoric humor? Is that what they think?
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Keep your head up. It's never as great as it seems, nor as bad.
My mom had COBRA and she hated it, so I know the feeling.
Things will turn
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Melissa, you hit two very good points about this whole buyout/layoff process.
I took a buyout effective Jan. 1, and I told myself to take a month or two to handle some pressing family affairs, then get started on the future.
But from the start, as you said, you really feel as if you should be doing SOMETHING relating to your future. As if you need to get on craigslist or something.
As for the insurance thing, I was lucky, because we got a year of coverage. So, at worst, I'll be facing down COBRA in the fall.
I was talking to a college student yesterday, and I told her that members of her generation will have to become independent contractors, in a sense.
"You all should learn from all of us and never rely on companies," I said.
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COBRA simply doesn't cut it. The third-party company in my case refuses to accept any payment other than checks. This causes serious logistical issues.
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