Why Haven’t I Been Job Hunting Yet?

Well……a few reasons. For the past 8 months or so, we’ve been waiting for word when the hospital will close. Finally a couple of weeks ago we found out that our last day will be on July 3, 2018. A few of my coworkers have found new jobs, while some are still hunting. As for me, I applied for a position of records clerk earlier this year which I thought was in one of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center’s units, but which turned out to be the OB/GYN clinic! It was only when I set up an appointment for an interview when I found out about it. But I went to the interview anyway and despite communicating well with the Nurse Manager and a couple of the Medical Assistants, I didn’t get a call back. I guess I wasn’t a good fit for them. If I was hired, it would have meant getting up so early in the morning again and going to work 5 days a week. Somehow my body doesn’t function well during day shifts anymore after having worked nights for more than 30 years. So in a way, it’s good I wasn’t hired.

That was the only job I applied for and right now my strategy is to wait until the company kicks us out on July 3^rd, then look at my options. California now has a 4.2% unemployment rate which means there are a lot of jobs available. So why haven’t I applied for anything yet? If I applied now and got accepted by another company, they may require me to start as soon as possible. After all no company in their right mind would be so accommodating and wait till July 3^rd when they need someone who can start right away.

There are a few reasons and incentives for waiting to find another job. If I stay till July 3^rd, the hospital will pay us an extra 20% for all hours worked since last November, and we will get severance pay equal to one week’s pay for every year of employment in the hospital, which for me would be 3 years. Besides, I have also accumulated more than 330 hours of vacation time. With that, I should be able to survive for a couple of months.

My main concern is losing medical and dental insurance coverage which come with a full time job. When I got laid off 4 years ago, at least I qualified for Medicaid under the newly started Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), because I met the income guidelines. That meant that I didn’t earn more than $16,000 that year. This year the income guidelines say that I cannot earn more than $16,395 (which is 138% of the federal poverty level) so I can qualify for Medicaid. With all the incentives and vacation time I’m accruing from my current job, I don’t foresee myself qualifying for Medicaid.

So my only option is to buy my own medical and dental insurance from Covered California, which is the government entity administering Obamacare in California. I’ll have to do that while job hunting after July 3^rd. On July 3^rd, it would be 3 years and 11 months before I qualify for Medicare.

Another downside is that I can’t plan for any vacations this year and most likely, I’ll deal with that before applying for any job.

The main strategy now is not to get fired before the hospital closes. In the meantime, I’ve been practicing saying “Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?”

Covered California (Obamacare) Update - The Saga Continues

BREAKING NEWS: Hours after I posted what I wrote below, I received snail mail from Covered California notifying me that I'm temporarily qualified for the federal subsidy for only 3 months because they needed proof of income, citizenship, and social security. I scanned and uploaded those to the website immediately but as probably should be expected my first two attempts gave me an error message. Fortunately, I remembered a workaround from a couple of months ago when somebody from Medi-Cal assisted me with my enrollment and uploaded the documents to a different section for eligibility changes. We shall wait and see what's going to happen next.

         
          After I had my insurance choice changed from Anthem Blue Cross Silver to Healthnet Platinum, I waited a week for an acceptance letter from Healthnet. When that didn't arrive, I called Healthnet to find out if my name was in their system. To my consternation, it was not and January 1st was fast approaching and I didn't want to be without medical insurance at the start of 2014. I scoured the internet for similar problems and one of the websites mentioned a Covered California phone number that one of the commenters posted that wasn't publicized by Covered California.

          I called the number and I was surprised that it wasn't busy nor did it have a waiting time. Initially, they couldn't check on my status because the system was down for maintenance. I tried again an hour later and they were able to verify my choice of insurance. The person I talked with said he was going to forward my concerns to tech support. When I called Healthnet the next day, my name was already in their system. I was given my subscriber ID number by the customer service representative and another phone number to call where I could pay and choose a doctor. It was an automated system (I thought I was going to take to another person) and the option to choose a doctor was not available, but I was able to pay for the January premium by credit card. My name didn't come up but the ID number corresponded with my platinum coverage choice and amount that Covered California quoted.

          The next day, an acceptance letter arrived from Healthnet, which was out of turn chronologically. I then tried to register with the Healthnet website for several days but it wouldn't take my ID number until January 1st. When I was finally able to log in, I found out that I had been preassigned a doctor based in Huntington Park. I called the Healthnet again on New Year's Day and wasn't expecting a live person to answer when I didn't press any buttons, but someone named Candy answered and she was able to change my doctor. I even joked and asked her if she picked the short straw so she had to work on New Year's day. I printed out the overview of my coverage as a temporary ID in case I needed proof of insurance since I was joining my relatives the next day for a day trip to Pechanga Casino.

          So it was great relief to find out I was finally covered even though I had to pay for it and it's a lot cheaper than what I paid for private insurance in November  and December. It had been an almost painstaking three months to get covered which was not helped by being unemployed. Then another surprise came up. I got a Medi-Cal card in the mail and called their L.A. County office  who told me I'm also temporarily covered and can use it any time until more information comes in the mail, so I can choose a Managed Care Plan, kinda like an HMO. I'm temporarily covered by Medi-Cal until they can verify my projected 2014 income. Again, out of turn, my Healthnet ID card arrived a few days later.

People who haven't bought insurance by March 31st are supposed to be fined by the Federal Government. My question is how will the government know if they haven't bought it? I also think it's going to be a mess once the insurance companies start trying to collect the subsidized amounts (based on income) from the government. How well the Obamacare system works out remains to be seen.

          This is what would cost me to have health insurance: if I took COBRA from the job I was laid off from = $503, if I continued with Anthem Blue Cross Silver (which I subscribed in November and December on the open market)= $193, with Healthnet Platinum = $134. Medi-Cal, if it comes to it, is free.

Here are my other posts regarding Obamacare:
http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-obamacare-loophole-for-early-retirees.html
http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/12/complications-in-making-changes-in.html
http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-experience-with-obamacare-sign-up-in.html
http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/12/glitches-ive-encountered-with-covered.html

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TCB (Taking Care of Business) After My Layoff

          Apologies to Elvis Presley for using TCB in the title. So what have I done so far since I became unemployed last October 29th? First things first: I applied for unemployment benefits online which was a pretty easy process as long as you know what your income was every quarter for the past year. That's because the Employment Development Department (EDD) bases your weekly benefits on the quarterly incomes. About a week later, I received EDD's approval in the mail including information on how much a week I can expect to receive. I was also required to sign up for CalJOBS (caljobs.ca.gov), upload my resume, and complete some information about my work history, supposedly so that employers can look for me.

          Next, I waited for Keenan Benefits company to send me my COBRA information which shows how much I have to pay to continue my medical, dental, and vision insurance. While working, I (and the other employees) only paid approximately one third of the total amount. With COBRA, I would have to pay for the whole thing plus a processing fee. Here is the breakdown per month: medical= $501.60, dental= 43.82, and vision= 8.02. That was a shocker and way beyond what I thought it would be. So I had to shop for medical insurance in the open insurance market and was able to sign up with Anthem Blue Cross whose monthly price, deductibles, and co-pays were more or less affordable even though they are much higher than my previous insurance at work. I have to pay a slightly higher premium (25% more) than the base price because I have preexisting conditions of high blood pressure and high cholesterol which I am taking medications for. I am supposed to pay for a full month plus a prorated fee for the few days left before January 1, 2014. And why is that date very important? It's when Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act takes effect. Then it was time to sign up for Obamacare which I already previously blogged about here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-experience-with-obamacare-sign-up-in.html. With the high cost of medical insurance, all the more reason to try your best to stay healthy.

Afterwards, I took care of my bank accounts which I also blogged about here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/11/taking-care-of-bank-business.html. After sorting out how much money I had left, I decided to pay off my mortgage: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2013/11/paying-off-mortgage-good-or-bad-decision.html. I finally received the Payoff Letter of Satisfaction from the bank a few days ago and am still waiting for L.A. County Recorder's office to send me a copy of the Deed of Reconveyance which I guess acts like the title to my property. Yes folks, I paid off my mortgage which has been the biggest amount I've owed for more than a couple of decades.

          Needless to say, I have also been looking for a job in between what I've done so far that's mentioned above. All of my applications have been online and the original plan was to look for job openings in nearby hospitals with psych units. I've sent applications for every one of them that I know of. The next plan was to widen the search area and also apply for jobs not related to the psych field. That included searching in the CalJOBS listings which included companies where you can send your resume via CalJOBS or external company websites you are redirected to. I also set up a few job agents using keywords of what kind of job I am looking for. With all that effort you would think that I would get at least one call for an interview. Zip, nil, zilch, nada! Wow, I didn't realize finding a job would be so difficult especially with my experience. Well, that might pose a problem actually, because I've worked in the psych field for the last 32 years, I may be pigeon holed (I hope I'm using that term correctly) as being too experienced therefore inflexible, or just plain too old for the available positions. After all, 32 years is sometimes longer and older than the age of a lot of workers in the psych field. So three weeks after I was officially laid off and six weeks after I started looking for a job, I'm still unemployed.

          With all the paperwork from all of the above, things are starting to get confusing so I have to get more organized. I guess one way of sorting them all out is writing about it. I have paper files in different folders, digital files in the computer, and a dedicated browser bookmarks folder for websites I've applied to and/or planning to apply to. Some days I feel that I'm not catching up and some days are just plain boring if I didn't have any projects planned.

          Part of what I've done to prepare for long term unemployment was to make a projected monthly budget. If you think I've done well during the recession by cutting my spending, well you may be right, but now I have to cut it to the bone. I actually conducted a poll among my classmates in our Facebook group, whether it would be more feasible for me to live in the Philippines (I have dual citizenship) based on a certain budget. I asked for their input on how much I need each month based on what part of the country I may move to. Their opinions mattered a lot since we are of similar ages and have to deal with similar things like housing, food, utilities, and healthcare in our middle aged years. One question I asked myself is why I would want to go back and live there when Filipinos want to come to the U.S. to live here to improve their way of life? Well, that's where the matter of monthly expenses come in. If it costs pretty much the same living here as it would in the Philippines, I might as well stay here. Regardless of where I decide to live, the budget is going to be very, very tight.

          And this is where unemployment benefits are going to help. If I remain unemployed for the next six months and as long as I keep looking for a job, the money I get from the government is enough to sustain me without having to touch my nest egg. I still hope to qualify for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) so I don't have to pay for medical insurance starting January 1, 2014. And if I don't, I've factored that into my projected monthly budget. Unemployment benefits are going to save me from going bankrupt for now. So far I've received the benefits for two weeks. Boy, being unemployed sure is inconvenient! Even though I'm trying my best to TCB, it's looking more like HBH.

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My Experience With Obamacare Sign Up in California

          Since I became unemployed, medical insurance coverage has become a major concern. I can apply for COBRA from my previous job but it's very expensive. Private insurance although slightly less costly, is still high and the co-pays and deductibles are high as well, meaning more out of pocket expense. I may be able to cover COBRA or private insurance up to the end of this year, but what about if I become long term unemployed? This where the advantage of Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act kicks in. So the day after I got laid off, I immediately applied at California's health insurance exchange - Coveredca.com. We've all already heard about the problems the federal site (healthcare.gov) was having so I'm not even going to say anything about that. I've previously researched this issue several months ago which I wrote about here: An Obamacare Loophole for Early Retirees?

          So I explored the coveredca.com website and clicked on the Individuals and Families link, then Start Here, which took me to another site -  https://v.calheers.ca.gov/apspahbx/ahbxanonym.portal. This where you can create an account and put in all your information. You can also Preview Plans so you can estimate how much you can expect to pay for your premiums depending on your income. I entered all the information as prompted by the website and when I arrived at the part where it asked to verify my citizenship, I hit a wall. Each time I clicked Continue , an error message appeared. I tried several times and it showed a different error message number each time. I gave up and contacted a customer service agent via Online Chat (you have that option or call them at the toll free number). I told them my problem and was informed that they were having some glitches and they don't know when it was going to be fixed, and for me to try again later. I tried again but encountered the same problem and this is when I noticed that from about 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., the website was down for maintenance. So I tried the next day and the day after with the same results. Finally after the third day of trying, the website suddenly accepted my citizenship data. By the way, just to let you know, I'm a naturalized citizen. So with the website finally cooperating, I was able to finish my application. Next was to find out what kind of insurance coverage I qualified for based on my income. I'm going to spare you the explanation of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans. They are all based on how much federal subsidies you qualify for and how much you are willing to pay out of pocket. Anyway the best one I could find to fit my limited budget was the Silver 73 plan with co-pays of $40 for a doctor's visit and lab tests, $50 for x-ray, $250 for CT, PET, or MRI's, $19 for generic drugs, $250 after deductible for ER visits, etc. Well you get the idea. The most affordable I saw was with Healthnet at $137 per month.

          Next was to check if the primary care physician I've been seeing for years was part of that insurance plan. So you click on a link called Find your doctor and type in your doctor's name and zip code. Well my doctor was in the system but did not accept Healthnet. He accepted Anthem Blue Cross, but  my monthly cost would go up to $196 for the same coverage as Healthnet. I wanted to continue seeing my doctor so I signed up for Anthem Blue Cross. I could have picked another doctor I knew who accepted Healthnet but that would have meant establishing a new relationship and history with that doctor, whereas my current doctor already knows my history.

          This brings me to the matter of my unemployment. Since I'm jobless, I no longer have an income and from my research, I knew I could possibly qualify for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). I contacted customer service again via online chat and was informed that since I had a major life event change, I could either call in that information or click Report a Change after I log in on the website. Since that happened on a Friday, I waited until the weekend was over before trying it. On Monday (November 4), I reported the change in my income. The website asked me for my income but it would not accept $0.00 as a value, so I ended up putting in $0.01 as my hourly income. The website accepted that value and it proceeded to ask me for identification to prove that I live in California and qualifying papers to prove my new income. I was able to scan my California driver's license, WARN Act Notice, and Notice of Termination and uploaded it to the site. The only thing I have to do now is wait for the California Health Exchange to review and verify those papers and notify me if I qualify for Medicaid.

          So other than that initial 3 day glitch in the system and at times having to log off and back in to get back to where I wanted to be in the website, it worked pretty well. No doubt much better than the federal website. I can now only hope and pray that I qualify for Medicaid because that's going to help a lot in reducing my monthly bills in case I don't find work for the long term.

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An Obamacare Loophole For Early Retirees?

This entry was written on April 21, 2013, way before Obamacare took effect. Here is an update concerning my situation dated July 26, 2014: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2014/07/qualifying-for-medi-cal-due-to-obamacare.html .

I didn’t expect to write about anything today, especially not about politics. But this is not about politics but rather about retirement. After I finished reading about buying health insurance with Obamacare, I just had to share a surprising discovery that could affect me and perhaps you. The main I concern I’ve had about retiring early (if I could), was getting affordable health insurance. I was already dreading the thought of having to work until I reach 65 when I would be eligible for Medicare, or stop working earlier and move to the Philippines. Of course you can always buy coverage from private insurance companies, but they are very expensive and if you have a pre-existing condition, your premiums could be higher or you could be denied coverage. So I decided to do some research on how Obamacare would affect the cost of health insurance coverage for early retirees, who won’t be eligible for Medicare until age 65, and found some interesting things about the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010.

First I went to this website: coveredca.com to check out how Obamacare would work in California. I read through pages of information but they didn’t clearly indicate how early retirees would qualify. The main criteria they had was income. Where would early retirees get their income and how is that calculated? The website didn’t clearly say. So I asked Mr. Google this question: “Do early retirees qualify for medicaid?” A whole bunch of financial and news websites came up explaining a glitch or loophole in Obamacare. Here are a couple of examples: http://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2012/07/03/surprising-ways-the-new-health-care-plan-can-speed-up-your-financial-independence-day/ and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/21/obama-health-care-law-medicaid-middle-class_n_881412.html.

Basically, what is says is that early retirees can qualify for subsidized health insurance starting in 2014 or if you fall under a certain income level, then you qualify for Medicaid and don’t have to pay for health insurance. Interesting! If this is the case, then I hope the law isn’t overturned by the powers that be in Washington, D.C.

So hypothetically, if I am able to pay off my mortgage, then I won’t be requiring too much monthly income to cover my day to day expenses and utility bills. Let’s just say I only need $1,000 a month to survive ( I can actually subsist on less). That’s what I have to withdraw from my savings and would make my income $12000 a year which would qualify me for Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid). So if anybody ever reads this and is familiar with the subject, please correct me if I’m wrong. Based on the California program, I will not have to start paying for health insurance until my income goes over 15,850. If I understand what I read correctly and I actually have to buy subsidized insurance, that would give me a Silver Level coverage. Until the open enrollment starts later this year, I won’t know how much the Gold or Platinum Level coverage would cost, which is the highest tier of coverage available. That means more out of pocket to pay for the insurance monthly, but lesser to pay when you get treatment.

Then I realized, I was actually wrong about withdrawing from my savings as income. Regular banks savings actually don’t qualify as income because they had already been taxed beforehand. Now if I start withdrawing from my regular IRA or 401K at age 59 ½ , that would actually be considered taxable income. So while withdrawing from savings until it runs dry, my taxable income would actually be zero. Right? I don't have enough savings to last until I turn 59 ½ though :( .

If that Obamacare loophole is for real, then it’s almost too good to be true. Will the law be amended to fix this loophole? Because it is to my advantage, then I hope not. You mean to say I could possibly afford to retire in the U.S. and not have to do it in the Philippines?!

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