Health Insurance 101: What Every Diabetic Needs to Know Before Open Enrollment

[00:00:00] Rob Howe: Hello podcast listeners, it's your host Rob Howe. I have a special episode for you guys this week. Our normal calendar is a little bit delayed. I'm just coming off of the Diabetes Sangha Spring 2026 retreat, which was in Washington. Highly encourage you to go back and listen to, if you haven't already, the episode a few weeks ago with Sam Tolman, who is one of the practitioners and co-founders of Diabetes Sangha. It was an amazing retreat and I'm feeling super refreshed and energized for what I'm doing. What's Next? Sending you love and compassion wherever you are. This episode is interesting because I think it was originally part of a series on health insurance. We had had some questions in, a special shout out to friend of the pod and former guest, Eric Van Leeuwen, who had asked for some content around navigating insurance as an adult with type 1 diabetes. And I put out a call on LinkedIn around the end of 2024 and got a couple of responses back and was attempting to do a sort of montage episode on different elements of insurance. And for one reason or another, some of the interviews fell through, but one that did not was with Dakota Myers. And it's actually the most important of the group because it talks about health insurance 101 and the terminology and understanding of what someone with a chronic illness may need and may need to know when they're talking to their employer, when they're evaluating health plans to cover things like deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, and more as a person living with diabetes. This fits in really well with our current series of living well with diabetes in terms of the financial component, which we have not done an episode on yet. We talked a little bit about physical, a little bit about mental. We've got more episodes coming up about community and the social side. But this is a episode that's more tactical. It's informational about health insurance in the United States. So for our international listeners, this is one that you can either listen to to learn a little bit more about how our very complex insurance system works. Or you can skip for a later episode if you're not interested in learning about the health insurance system in the United States. For those living in the States, I think this is really good for someone who is about to transition off of their parents' health plan, is maybe going to be switching health plans as they turn 18 or they turn 26, or is evaluating employment opportunities and wants to know what they should ask when they're talking to a potential employer about what their insurance covers. Please enjoy this episode and big thanks to Dakota Myers and for Dustin Herner, who referred him to the show. Enjoy. Guys, who was MVP of the chat? What's going on, everybody? We are back with another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We're doing a little bit of a different episode for you today. My guest for this portion of our health insurance compilation, because as you guys all know, you've got to have health insurance if you live in the United States. And there's a lot of terminology and there's a lot of confusion. And for people with diabetes, it's a really important part of getting your medication, your regularly scheduled appointments with your doctor, and then also considerations when you're switching jobs or turning 26. So my guest today, Dakota Myers, you might know him online as The Benefits Boss, thebenefitsboss.com. Dakota, thank you for your time and welcome to the show.

[00:03:21] Dakota Myers: Yeah, man, so happy to be here and give any value we can. So super excited.

[00:03:26] Rob Howe: I wanted to have experts on because while I have certainly filled out my fair share of insurance paperwork and, you know, as a business owner myself going through and evaluating benefits packages and working with an insurance broker, I can tell you right now that I am not an expert. I just have done it quite a bit. So I wanted to make sure to bring on the subject matter experts. So what we're going to talk about today specifically just overarching from a health insurance perspective is what I'm going to call health insurance 101 for people with chronic illnesses. And I think the way I want to tee up the conversation for the audience is I'm doing this series to help provide people with diabetes and chronic illnesses basic information on health insurance in the United States, because we are going to need consistent prescription drug coverage, doctors and specialist visits to go into chronologists and others, you know, ophthalmologists and things like that for regular checkups, as well as primary care. So as we're getting into that, that's sort of the lens that we're viewing this entire health insurance topic through. So really excited to kind of learn some of the basic terminology with you today.

[00:04:31] Dakota Myers: Sure. Absolutely, man. Fire away. I can take anywhere you want.

[00:04:33] Rob Howe: All right. Well, let's just start with the basics. So there's a lot of things under terminology that we hear. And, you know, especially when you're reading or reviewing a health plan. So let's start with just like health premiums. When someone is looking and evaluating health insurance plans, you're going to look at the premiums. What is that going to be?

[00:04:51] Dakota Myers: Yeah, premium is just the monthly amount that you're paying. It's your price per month that you are paying for a plan. So pretty basic. Deductible, that's what you have to pay first. It's typically just for hospitalizations and surgeries that you pay first. Think of it like three steps. Got your deductible, then you got coinsurance. That's step two. It's where you're cost sharing with the insurance company. Most plans are like 80-20. And then you have your max out of pocket. Your max is the most you pay before they pick up everything. Typical max out-of-pockets out there individually, like if you're not getting it with work, are typically $1,000 to $1,000. So they're kind of pricey, right? But the good news is once you hit that is unlimited coverage, we shop every single plant in the country in all 50 states. And so we'll usually bundle something to help pay that $7,000 to $10,000. because if someone gets something major, right, like cancer, a heart attack, something gets triggered by having diabetes or something chronic in their world, it's not only $7,000 or $10,000 that you have to pay. It's also the bills that happen when you're not working, right? Because when you're not working, most of the times you're not making money. It's really important to cover those gaps because sometimes people will be out of work for three months, six months, 12 months. And on top of the max out of pocket, you still have your co-pays that you pay before you hit that match. And so for diabetes specifically, insulin. Insulin can be super expensive, and we can definitely dive into it, but $1,000 a month. And so you need to make sure or a broker can find you a plan that will cover that specific medication.

[00:06:25] Rob Howe: And you're also talking about regarding big surgeries and time off of work, like short-term and long-term disability coverage.

[00:06:32] Dakota Myers: Yeah, correct. There's three versions of disability. Some plans will pay you a lump sum check. So, hey, if you get a major chronic condition, you'll get a check for $1,000 to $500,000. So you get a lump sum money that's now yours. You can use it whatever you want. You want to make sure your max is paid on your health, like up to $10,000, plus bills. Then there's other disability plans that will pay you monthly. So they'll write you a check depending on your income. Sometimes it's $1,000 a month. Sometimes it's $5,000 a month. It depends on your income. And that can go for a duration of typically a couple months to a couple years.

[00:07:07] Rob Howe: So let's go back a little bit to the previous kind of like more of the basics, right? Health premiums and deductibles and out of pocket max. So when you're evaluating plans, you're typically going to see, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but your costs are going to be, you know, you're either going to have a higher premium and you typically see like a lower deductible. And it kind of depends on what your specific need is. Like, are you looking at to pay less per month? And then you'd say, you know, for somebody, for example, who doesn't go to the doctor very often or who kind of maybe doesn't necessarily have a chronic illness like diabetes, they may say, okay, cool, I'll pay a low monthly premium. I'm not worried about this. I'll have a high deductible, but I don't plan on using much of the insurance. So, you know, if something major happens, I'm still covered. And then on the other side, and this I think comes in on the diabetes side, it's like, okay, well, I do go to the doctor pretty regularly. I see multiple specialists. I have a lot of prescription drugs that I need, like insulin that are required for my day-to-day survival. So I'm going to pay a little bit more on my premium and I have a lower deductible. So once I hit that deductible, because I'm planning on doing that with all of the typical regular costs that I incur, then it'll be lower for me after that. Do I have that right? It's 100% right. And it's kind of funny,

[00:08:19] Dakota Myers: most people come from a group plan, so they usually have it with work and then they find themselves needed individually. And so many people, it's most of the younger population, I would say like 20 to 40 kind of in our age range, they really care about wellness. They're like, man, I never go to the doctor. I just want my wellness covered. I just want my physical covered, which is good in my theory, but a lot of plans will charge you sometimes $100 to $300 more a month on the private side just to get a one-time wellness visit. So that means you're going to pay $1,000 to $3,000 more a year just to get $200 to $300 visit covered, $400 visit covered. And so you're 100% right. If you're not going to the doctor, I would say more than three, four, five times a year, or have medications or doctors you need covered, you just need to cover major stuff, then yeah, a catastrophic plan makes sense because you'll save yourself two, three, four, $5,000 a year. But people kind of get conditioned where they get this awesome work plan and they're like, every plan should be like this. The reality is that work plans, and you could probably relate to this, they're expensive. For an employee, sometimes they're five, six, seven, $800 a month. So that means work was put in the bill for you for that visit.

[00:09:30] Rob Howe: Yeah, it's really interesting. My perspective definitely shifted as I started a business and provided health care coverage and recreation. I'm really proud. We pay 100 percent of our employee premiums, but those are expensive. And like when you're when you're making those deals, we also are a small business. So we don't have the leverage that a large employer may have. So, you know, it's hard for us to compete for top talent. Not only do we have to pay salaries and, you know, make an awesome place to work, but we've also got to provide best in class benefits. And there really are advantages to those large companies who have 3,000 or more employees because they have a bigger group of people that they can go negotiate some of those prices down. And so you're right. If that's all you've ever experienced and you get great coverage and great benefits through those big companies, if you shift it over to a plan or went to work for a small business where you don't really have as many options, it can be kind of a shock.

[00:10:21] Dakota Myers: And that's where most people find it. Most people do get it with work and they go self-employed. They start a business. They're in a contractor role. and they need their own plan. And it's confusing. Like if you just type health insurance online, like you're going to get probably 500 calls and you're going to feel pressured into buying something. You don't know what options are out there. And so it's a really hard product to shop for. It's really confusing. And it's your health, right? So if you mess up on your own, if you go to a hospital nowadays and you spend like three hours there, it's like 40 grand for bills. So it's kind of game over if you're not on a good plan.

[00:10:54] Rob Howe: Well, I think that's why I'm doing this series, right? is because there is a lot of pressure and you don't want to make the wrong call. And it's something where, you know, if you did select the wrong plan and then you realize it, it's not something you can just go immediately adjust. You've got to wait until the next enrollment period to do. And that can cause unnecessarily, you know, stress and financial strain and those types of things. Let's go back a little bit too, because we talked about the terminology and like the elements of these plans, but then there's also different types of plans. So I think I have three here because I hear a lot about the first one we'll talk about is HSA, which stands for health savings account. And so like that's a pretty popular term that I see out. And you can also use that HSA for different things. So and then there's also like the PPO and the HMO style plans. I'm not sure how popular HMO is anymore, but PPO for sure. What are what are those plans and how should people

[00:11:47] Dakota Myers: think about them? Yeah, well, let's start with network first. I think network's a little more important than HSA, but I'll dive into that. So networks. PPO, if you have an option to go PPO, you always want to do it. It means preferred provider organization. It means that you get to essentially choose your doctors. You can use them outside the state. If you're sick, you don't need to get a referral to go see a specialist. You can just go. HMOs essentially kind of strip that away. If you want to go see a specialist, you have to get a referral. They don't work outside the state. They will for emergencies, but not just to go to like the doctor. She taxes individually and the individual like what they call Obamacare or like Affordable Care Act. They don't have any PPO's like the marketplace had so many claims. They kicked them out. You can only get PPO's private like outside of that. So you have two markets. You have Obamacare and it's the law that they passed. And they essentially said, hey, we're going to cover every condition. Doesn't matter if you're healthy. It doesn't matter if you have diabetes, cancer, which is awesome for those people. Right. to make sure that you can get covered and get your stuff paid. And then on private side, you have to get approved into them, but they're usually less cost. They're a little more flexible and they still have PPO's go. So HMOs, they kind of strip it away. You do have a hybrid called an EPO, which means you can still use outside the state. There's still some of those options available. Really the thing with networks though, the hack is just to make sure that the doctors you want to see can go inside that network. A big network inside Texas is Baylor, Scott & White. They have a huge hospital system here in Texas. And if you're on an HMO and they take it, it's not terrible to go. Like it will still work. They'll send the referral for you. But even on a PPO, you can still be out of network. The plan will still pay, but you'll just pay more. So really the hack with networks is not to get too lost in the sauce because there's 100 carriers about different networks. Just the doctors you want to see, are they a network? and are you going outside the state regularly? Like, are you a truck driver? Are you a travel nurse? Like, are you doing a lot of work outside where something might happen? That's probably the only situation like you need a solid PPO day-to-day, which you can always add those onto plans you can customize in.

[00:13:56] Rob Howe: So let's double click on the hack really quick. Sorry to cut you off. I love a hack. So if you're evaluating plans and you get to be part of a network, great example here in Texas, Baylor, Scott and White, like you said, you know there might be others in across different states like I think I feel like there's two or three big hospital networks or health care networks in every state and you probably if you're in listening to this right now in a state other than Texas you're thinking of like a couple of them right now they usually have websites where you can go and check to see if your doctor is covered in that network so if you know who your doctor is or even if you want to switch doctors and you know the name of the provider that you're looking for going in and searching those doesn't take too long and you can make sure that your coverage is going to be in that network. So if you get that coverage, you know, your provider and everything will be covered under that.

[00:14:44] Dakota Myers: Yeah. And whoever you're buying insurance from, that's like selling insurance 101, like to make sure that doctors are in network. So if you're talking to an agent broker who's not checking that for you, then you're probably not talking to the right broker. That is like selling 101 just to verify doctors and medications are covered because that's the biggest stuff that You kind of need covered in a plan because I can get I can get crazy.

[00:15:07] Rob Howe: Well, you talked about this earlier. Like if you just type in, I need health insurance online, you're going to get a ton of ads. You're going to get a ton of calls. You're going to sort of have to drink from the fire hose to try to find good information. So I think that maybe there's a perception from individual users that they they don't need a broker necessarily or if they're not an employer or they're not they don't if they're not part of a group. What's your advice there? Somebody who's evaluating different options, should they go with a broker?

[00:15:33] Dakota Myers: Yeah, 100%. I mean, a good broker. Look at reviews, look at their Google reviews. If they're any good, they'll have a social presence. Check that out. Check Facebook groups, stuff like that. You'll find like a lot of good agents. Brokers don't get upsell or get paid more. You don't pay more for using a broker. The insurance carriers pay brokers commission. And so you'll kind of tell by someone's tone if they're trying to sell you something, you know, or if they're actually trying to help you out. So see how they're helping out. Make sure they're doing a good thing. In our process that we do, we do a deep discovery. So we find out all the doctors, all the meds, everything you need covered. What's your current prices? What's your price with work? What's your price with Cobra, which we can dive into? What is each thing? And then we solve the problem for you. Hey, based on everything you just told me, here's the package. We always build the best package for someone. Say, hey, listen, this is the best deal you can get, but you're going to go customize it. You essentially get to build your own plan. It usually comes down to an affordable price that someone feels good. It's like a together situation, not like a sales pitch. And then we enroll them, but we don't charge extra for that service. So if you just type health insurance online, yes, you will find a lot of sites where you can just go enroll. But you're just going to see their options. If you're working with someone good, they have access to everything. So they can quickly filter through. And there's a lot of off-market plans that are not online. So you need someone to show you those. They're groups that you can join. They give you better deals if you're self-employed or the hard states. If you're in New York, New Jersey, Cali, Vermont, Mass, some states still have a tax penalty for not getting what they qualify as health insurance. So you might enroll into a plan, but still get penalized. It's like a thousand dollars a year for a person that you file taxes with.

[00:17:19] Rob Howe: Yeah, all the more reason to get an expert involved so you don't get the surprise bills. Before we move on to, because I do want to talk about COBRA going through your employer, open enrollment and those types of things, but did want to touch on, we talked about PPO, really great information there. What about HSA?

[00:17:36] Dakota Myers: HSAs are good. I mean, the only ones that they can be used with are the Marketplace or the Obamacare plans. It's good. I mean, HSA plans like covering like a $5,000 to $8,000 like max. So you open up a separate account, say Fidelity or something like that. HSAs are great for tax savings. So you can kind of max them out to save in taxes and things like that. Most private plans, they include, they call it supplement plans to pay your max. So they kind of work like HSAs. There's also something called an HRA 105, HRA 105. And it's for self-employed people that are a single solo entrepreneur. I think I'm saying that right, right? Like one person running a business. Solopreneur, there you go. Thank you. that you can still write off and use it to pay your max out of pocket. So they're good, but I wouldn't say it's the priority with health plans. Most of them are covering your stuff regardless.

[00:18:33] Rob Howe: Yeah, and I guess the way that my broker outlined it, because we have a plan that allows people to opt into an HSA on our insurance, and it's for people who don't anticipate going to the doctor very often, want to get a head start on their savings, want to lower their taxable income for one reason or another. And then you can also use some of the money in that HSA to buy things like glasses or in some cases like wearable technology, health technology and things of that nature.

[00:18:58] Dakota Myers: Yeah, for sure. If you're big into that, great. If you have medical expenses, you want to crack down on your deductible max. It is a good option. I just don't see it like huge in the private market. It's more with work plans.

[00:19:10] Rob Howe: So we talked about employer and private plans where, you know, your employment status is tied to your coverage in many cases, right? Like that's part of the benefits package of working somewhere full time. So, you know, with an employer plan, you're going to be enrolling in either like an open enrollment period. if you've been there for a while or when you get hired or when your benefits kick in after, you know, a certain amount of time at your employer. When people are looking at like getting a new job, what are some of the things that they should look out for as they're evaluating benefit

[00:19:40] Dakota Myers: packages? Yeah, basics. And the insurance broker should be able to help out who's ever helping out the group or your HR team. Make sure your doctors are a network. Make sure your prescriptions are covered. I'd say those are the two biggest. And the third is look at the max out of pocket because a lot of people look at the deductible like, oh, my deductible is $1,000, $2,000. That's not the total you pay, the max is. And look at the family max out of pocket because it usually doubles. So it might be like 7,000 max for an individual. It might be 14,000 max for a family. So look at that because that means that's your worst case number and then

[00:20:16] Rob Howe: they pay the rest. I'm glad you brought this up too because, yeah, really important to look at the individual and also the family. But the deductible and the out-of-pocket max, and I I think this is where it gets confusing for people and people think that the deductible is the max that you'll pay, which is not totally wrong. Right. Because you reach a certain point and there's different coverages after that. But then the out of pocket max is the max that you will pay. So when you're talking about, like we said earlier, surgeries or, you know, major kind of hospital expenses. How does that work? Like when you meet the deductible is the terminology versus the out of pocket max.

[00:20:51] Dakota Myers: Yeah, it's interesting. So think of it like three steps. First step is deductible. Outside of co-pays, everything's going to go towards the deductible. Let's say it's $1,000. Once the thousands hit, then coinsurance is going to kick in, meaning you're now magically cautioning with the insurance company, right? They're picking up 80%. You're picking up, let's say, 20%. It's usually 80-20, 70-30, 60-40, or 50-50. It's usually in those ranges. You pay a percentage until you hit the max, which could be $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 in this example. The problem is if you go to a hospital and like we talked about, you spend like a day there, the bills are so crazy. They're like 20, 30, 40, 50,000. So that 20%, that coinsurance adds up like that. Like it usually takes a couple, one major event and you've hit the max. It's only when you're going into the doctor, I would say 5, 10, 15, 20 times where you're like, you see the break of that coinsurance. You kind of hit the max right away. And the only way you're going to hit a deductible most times is if you have a major event. Like an average doctor visit is like $100 to $500. So you would have to go not on $1,000 deductible. Most are on $1,000 deductible. Most are like $3,000 to $5,000. That's a pretty good deductible. Yeah, yeah. I gave a too low example. You're going to have to go probably 10 to 20 times to a doctor to hit the deductible. So that means you're probably going to have something major happens if you're going that much or in and out. So it's just kind of a number, but the max, that's why the max is the most important because you kind of hit it immediately.

[00:22:27] Rob Howe: Right, right. Yeah, you're looking at, okay, worst case scenario, this is the amount of money that I'm going to have to pay towards health insurance before everything else is covered. For sure. Okay, great information. I think that's one of the things that I think people either overlook, they're moving too fast, or they have a misunderstanding about how that works. So really great. I love the three-step process. The next thing I think is, you know, when you're going on your own or you're going to be a contractor for a little while is you're going through the public ACA Obamacare marketplace. So any advice for for people as they're evaluating plans going through that process?

[00:22:58] Dakota Myers: Open enrollment starts in November. So they give you like up to three months, November, December and January to pick a plan. If you're outside of that, let's say you move, hopefully you don't get divorced, but divorce, change a plan, lost job, they'll let you get in, which is kind of nice. There's also a side hack. We're talking about hacks getting in. It's called the decline on Medicaid hack, okay? So if you apply for Medicaid in your state and you get that actual decline letter, you can get back on the marketplace before it creates like a qualifying event. So why is this important? Let's say someone somehow got locked out of open enrollment and they need a surgery covered next month and the surgery is $50,000. But they can't get on a work plan. That is a hack you can do. You can apply for Medicaid, get the client that gives you a qualifying event to get back on the marketplace, which is nice.

[00:23:48] Rob Howe: And those are called like those are called like life events, right? Like life events. Yeah, they call qualifying event to get in.

[00:23:53] Dakota Myers: If someone's pregnant and for some reason they did not sign up during open enrollment, they something happened. They didn't make it happen. You can use some hacks like that to get on the marketplace to get stuff covered. Because the cool thing about the marketplace is it covers all pre-existing conditions. So you want to use that sparingly. Like that's not like the go, that's not the strategy. But if you find yourself in that scenario, that is a hack to get on the marketplace and get your stuff covered. So you're not out thousands, tens of thousands of dollars. The marketplace can only start on the first though. Okay. So this is important to know. If you need a surgery covered or a certain medication covered, you have to plan that accordingly when you get your refills and stuff like that. So if like you're losing a plan the second of the month, because sometimes when you leave your job, they cut you off right away. Then you kind of have to plan that around accordingly so that way you can get covered. The cool thing about private plans, like outside Marketplace though, is they can be enrolled year round. So you don't have to worry about the open enrollment. So it kind of depends on two situations. What we look at really is someone's income and their health, right? Because what's cool about the lovely government and sometimes they're not always cool, but this is cool. They've issued crazy amount of tax credits to help pay for Marketplace. If people didn't have tax credits, The marketplace is insanely expensive. For a family of three to four, it can cost upwards like full price, like two grand a month to get covered. Like it's insane. And so the government has issued these credits that go based on your income. They keep raising the amount of money that you can make to still get credits though. Like for a family of three to four, people who make over $100,000 can still get tax credits to pay for health insurance. So the first thing we do is we check to see what credits they get because that really helps lower the price. And two, the health, right? Like if someone makes, I would say, $20,000 to $100,000, marketplace is probably the best option for them with those tax credits. If someone is healthy and they make over $200,000, probably a private plan is better because they're going to go based on health and they're going to give them a better deal and they're going to get more coverage going down. But if someone makes over 200K and they're unhealthy or they got a lot of health stuff, the marketplace is the best option because it will cover those health.

[00:26:08] Rob Howe: Right. So it kind of depends on income and health. And I think as we say unhealthy, you know, including like preexisting conditions and chronic conditions that are not necessarily like related to something they did, but just are on their file because the insurance company is saying, how expensive is this person going to be to cover?

[00:26:25] Dakota Myers: That's a good point. I don't mean to be triggering by saying unhealthy. I'm just saying from an insurance POV, if they look at your medical records, if you go to a doctor and you just say, hey, I felt bad today. Sometimes they'll write in your medical records, this person has a chronic condition, you know, and now that's like forever linked with you as you go apply for different insurances. And so from an insurance POV, they're like, hey, this person's unhealthy, we're not going to go. Now, insurance companies don't always pull medical records, but if they look and see, they could decline, right? Which is why the marketplace exists. It does serve a function.

[00:27:02] Rob Howe: So the next thing I want to cover, too, is COBRA. You talked about when you leave a job or, you know, if you're unfortunately caught in a layoff or something like that. There's the COBRA option. And I think it's always intended to be temporary. But talk a little bit about what COBRA is. I know it's an acronym. off the top of my head, I can't exactly remember what it stands for. So that's why you're here as the expert. But when people are talking about like gap coverage or between jobs or taking some time off or whatever the case is, what what is the you know, what does that process look like?

[00:27:33] Dakota Myers: It's a super long name. It's the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Who's naming these names? I don't know. Thank God they just say COBRA. But essentially, it's a government law that says, hey, you can keep your work plan up to 18 months, you pay full price for it plus two. Cobra is like ridiculously expensive because you're paying what the, Rob can talk to this, you're paying what the employer paid plus 2% on top of it. And so typically for an individual, it's 600 to a thousand a month. For a family, it's typically 1200 to $2,000 a month, you know, depending on ages. And so the good news is here, let me give you another hack. Okay. Let's say you are leaving your job and you're getting another job in like a month, right? Their benefits don't start for a month or whatever the case is, right? There's a little probation period. The cool thing about COBRA, you can actually backdate it. Let's say you leave November. We have another plan starting in December. You can backdate the COBRA up to 60 days backdated. Now you'll have to pay your premium plus the map. So you're only really doing it for a catastrophic event, but you can save yourself a thousand to like three, four, $5,000, depending on when the next work plan starts. It's a, it's some work. You got to call their, the number they gave because there's a different facilitator between every Cobra plan. Cause it depends on how the group set it up. So it's a little bit of work to back in and do it, but you do have an option where you can potentially save yourself that money, but have a jet get out of jail free card. If something, if something major happens in your world.

[00:29:06] Rob Howe: Yeah, and you're in between coverages or something, like you said, catastrophic.

[00:29:09] Dakota Myers: Or you could just get a short-term plan and just bridge the gap. Every plan is month to month. Nothing locks you in. So you can just bridge the gap for a month, two, three, four, five, six months, however long before you get your next role, where you can get covered. There's definitely some hacks there, for sure.

[00:29:24] Rob Howe: And I want to be clear. You said I could speak to it as an employer. Yes, it is expensive. You're going to pay minimum $650 to $1,000 for an individual per month, which is, you know, nice work. if you're leaving that job under good terms, you're like, oh, wow, they were paying a lot of insurance money for me. On the other hand as well, not every business is required to have that to provide COBRA. So I think if you're under 20 employees, you don't have to file it. So be sure before you leave your job, not to use this as advice in any context, make sure that you get

[00:29:53] Dakota Myers: all the details when you leave those jobs. For sure. Exactly. Yeah. Not every, not every employer has a good point. Not every employer offers COBRA. So before you leave, make, see if it's an option. always try to check before you give your notice because sometimes they'll cut you off right away. And now some plans can't start to the first. So if you have stuff you need covered and let's say they cut you off on the 25th, but the next plan can't start till November and something happens during that five days, then, you know, then there's nothing we can do.

[00:30:21] Rob Howe: Well, Dakota, man, I think we covered all of the basics, like in a pretty rapid fire fashion. I can't wait to see the transcript of this and turn it into like really organized content for our listeners. But this was super valuable. And I know that if I had seen this or heard this early in my entrepreneurial journey, it would have saved me a lot of headaches. So for everybody out there who's listening, I really appreciate your time. You are the Benefits Boss. Thebenefitsboss.com will include that link in the show notes. So if you're listening to this on the road, check out the episode for links to Dakota and his team. Anything else you want to say before we stop recording?

[00:30:55] Dakota Myers: No, Rob, I appreciate it, man. Always down to talk about everyone's favorite subject insurance. It's important, man. So if any of you guys need help or anything like that, feel free to check out the site. We have a team of over 15 agents that can help out. We shop every single situation in the country. So if anybody needs the hookup at all, you guys know where to come.

[00:31:12] Rob Howe: Yeah, I definitely will. You'll be my guy to refer folks to. And, you know, made the joke. Insurance is not always fun to think about, but it is important. And this, I think, was a really accessible and entertaining way to get the dirt on some of this insurance stuff. And we love a hack. So can't wait to turn that up.

[00:31:31] Dakota Myers: Yeah, hacks are good, man. You either got to finesse or get finessed. So, you know, it's either way.

[00:31:37] Rob Howe: I love that. I love that. I'm going to have to use that for sure. All right, Dakota, thank you again. Thanks, Rob.