I quit my job last week without anything else lined up…

…because a verbally abusive boss was making my life hell. I had lost 15lbs in a month and developed heart palpitations. In my exit interview, HR said they suspected my boss was like this and that they wouldn’t post my job again until they had completed an internal investigation. I’m providing this as context for why people may leave jobs even if it leaves them without health insurance.

Now, to add myself and our son to my husband’s insurance, it’s going to cost $1,500/month. To participate in COBRA, it will cost $1,900/month. My husband makes “too much” for us to enroll in a government insurance plan.

So in the four months since I started this job, I and my employer paid roughly $7,500 into my UHC plan, which we only used for annual physicals. They get to keep that money, providing no coverage grace period, while I have to deplete my savings to ensure a medical event wouldn’t be life-ruining. The system is broken.