Medical miracle

Or maybe it's a show-biz miracle.

A couple of weeks ago I got a big fat envelope from SAG marked, "Information About Your Health Plan." Silly, SAG, I thought. No way I'm eligible for health benefits. The conventional statistic that gets tossed around is that supposedly 95% of SAG members don't earn enough to qualify for health benefits. I doubt that exact statistic is true, but it's probably a pretty high number.

Then I got a second, smaller envelope. I opened this one. It said I had just a few days to enroll and make my first premium payment.

What the what?

It was a lot of information and it was very complicated, but the upshot is, I actually did earn enough last year (actually, October '08 to September '09) to qualify for benefits this year. Ain't that something?

So now I have to figure out what to do. On the face of it, the SAG deal looks great. Premiums are less than HALF of what I'm paying now on my individual policy, and the deductible is ONE-TENTH my current one. Which basically means my current policy is catastrophic care. My doctor visits, prescriptions, tests, etc., effectively come out of my own pocket since the deductible is so high.

So do I cancel my current policy and go with SAG? There's a very good chance I won't make enough in the current cycle to qualify for coverage next year. I could go on COBRA for a giant markup, I suppose. I guess the biggest risk is, if I one day have to go back to individual coverage, will it be impossible to get, what with my age and various not-too-terribly-serious conditions like allergies and such. But who knows, with our fucked up health system?

It's times like these where I really miss having a Dad.