Consequences of not paying medical premium when I wanted to terminate anyway?

[LoMoKo]

Hi all,

In early January, I sent CareFirst a termination request to end my policy on January 31.
I accidentally dated my signature as 2021 rather than 2022 (as one does in January - but still my fault.)
On January 24, they uploaded a letter to my portal saying that for that reason, I need to submit a new termination request.
That new request only arrived in February, due to snail mail delays. So now they say they can only terminate end of February, and I'm accountable for February's premium.

I feel jipped - they know I was trying to terminate in Jan and have double-coverage for Feb. The fact that you can sign up online but have to terminate by mail feels sneaky.

Therefore, I'm tempted to NOT pay my February premium - the only consequence in their arrears letter was that my coverage would be terminated, and that I "may" not be able to re-enroll until the next open enrollment period. That consequence doesn't apply to me!

The only consequences that would scare me into paying are:
-If I were to become blacklisted from CareFirst for any period of time, I don't want to burn any bridges.
-If the outstanding bill affected my credit record.
-If I were to qualify for a new special enrollment period for some reason, and they made me wait until open enrollment because they said so.

I feel like sticking it to the man, but maybe this is just a time to curse the man inwardly and pay up to avoid any unknown consequences from a behemoth insurance company.

Anybody more knowledgeable or experienced than I in this area?

[terran]

I don't mean to be a jerk or make you feel bad, you probably just don't know, but just FYI, it's gypped not jipped and it's an offensive term to the Romani, otherwise known as gypsies (also offensive).

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Have you tried calling them and explaining what happened? That's likely where I would start.

[secondcor521]

Last year I stopped paying a monthly premium for one of my kids.  They had switched insurance coverage, and I had been paying the policy manually, and we were busy, so I just didn't worry about officially cancelling the policy for a few months.

Eventually we received a letter from the insurance company saying that since we hadn't paid the policy for those last three months, if we ever wanted to re-enroll in coverage with them again, we'd have to pay those premiums first.

They did offer an option for us to write them a letter and request them to change the cancellation date.  Because of the "burning bridges" aspect of things, I did go through the hassle of writing the letter and sending it in and making sure that they did backdate the cancellation date to the end of the last month for which we had paid.

In our case, we included in the letter the fact that we didn't make any claims on the policy during that limbo period, and explained that the kid was a busy college kid who had been quarantined and sick with COVID for about a month during that time, and in general just tried to be apologetic and professional.

I'm sure the insurance company just doesn't want to allow the moral hazard of people not paying their premiums for a while, waiting to see if they actually needed the coverage or not, then paying the premium or not as circumstances warrant.  I think your case is similar to mine and you'd probably succeed if you write them a letter and request that they terminate your policy at the end of January.

I've never seen a health insurance company report on a credit history - they're not extending you credit, so I'm not sure why they would.  But in theory you could check yours for black marks - it may take some time for the black mark to show up so you might check in a few months just to be sure if that's a serious concern.

[LoMoKo]

@terran , I had no idea! Thank you for mentioning this. I certainly didn't mean to make a slur or offend anyone. I just googled it now, and it seems no matter how you spell it, the word is in reference to prejudice against the Romani people. So I'll just remove that word from my vocabulary completely.

@SailingOnASmallSailboat , yes, I spoke to their customer service about 5 times. they escalated the issue to try to get the termination backdated, but ultimately were unsuccessful.

@secondcor521 , this does sound similar. Glad to hear worst-case is I would just have to pay the premium if I ever do sign up with them again - better than just paying it now to avoid some unknown consequence. Their language only threatens that I might not be able to sign up again until next open enrollment, which is not a concern for me. Thanks for sharing your story!

[Dicey]

I don't mean to be a jerk or make you feel bad, you probably just don't know, but just FYI, it's gypped not jipped and it's an offensive term to the Romani, otherwise known as gypsies (also offensive).

Beat me to it.

[Dicey]

@terran , I had no idea! Thank you for mentioning this. I certainly didn't mean to make a slur or offend anyone. I just googled it now, and it seems no matter how you spell it, the word is in reference to prejudice against the Romani people. So I'll just remove that word from my vocabulary completely.

Whoops, I missed this. Great response!

[terran]

@terran , I had no idea! Thank you for mentioning this. I certainly didn't mean to make a slur or offend anyone. I just googled it now, and it seems no matter how you spell it, the word is in reference to prejudice against the Romani people. So I'll just remove that word from my vocabulary completely.

Glad I could could help!