The thing that *is* handy about it, though, is that it now qualifies as "continued coverage" for the purposes of covering pre-existing conditions. So, if you need to take a contract for awhile and you don't generally get sick, but a family member has one of these pre-existing conditions, you can get coverage through that period, and your next employer can't kick you out because of it.<br>
<br>I was with Tek when they moved from one to the other back in '04.<br><br><br clear="all">---<br>Jerald M. Sheets jr.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 8:21 AM, Jeff Lightner <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jlightner@water.com">jlightner@water.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Bad example. </span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I worked for TEKsystems and they had god
awful insurance at the time. The policy essentially was capped at $5000 a year
and that only for hospital stays. It was not a real HMO/PPO/Major Medical
plan. They even told me it wasn’t classified as health insurance the
way other plans were. From what I gathered in complaining about it their view
was that their folks were contractors who didn’t really want the
insurance.</span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I liked the people I worked with at
TEKSystems and the ones that give the talks at AUUG on occasion know their
stuff but their insurance is a joke. Luckily for me I was able to maintain the
insurance from my prior job during my sojourn with them (albeit at a fairly
high cost). It was this insurance that made me think of the job as “temporary”
from the day I took it even though I liked the company they’d placed me
with and the work I was doing there. I’d likely not have taken it at
all if it hadn’t been during the tech bust period in the earlier part of
this decade.</span></font></p>
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<p><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">
<a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org" target="_blank">ale-bounces@ale.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org" target="_blank">ale-bounces@ale.org</a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Dave Malhotra<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, July 08, 2009
6:42 PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" target="_blank">ale@ale.org</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [ale] cheap health
insurance</span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This article came out last week. Its the sad story of a computer
security contractor who suffered a catastrophic health problem that ended up
bankrupting him and his wife. He paid for health insurance from the staffing
company he worked through (TEKsystems), but it didn't provide the nearly the
coverage he had assumed. Here's the link:</span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01meddebt.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01meddebt.html</a><br>
<br>
here's an older critique (a bit left-biased but has some good points) of these
somewhat controversial health plans:<br>
<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/limited_benefits.html" target="_blank">http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/limited_benefits.html</a><br>
<br>
With the economy the way it is more people might find themselves working
through staffing companies that offer this type of cheap health coverage as an
incentive. I just wanted to make people aware of this who are used to the
comprehensive plans offered by most direct employers. The cheap limited
benefits insurance offered by staffing companies is not the same and leaves you
financially exposed to a major illness.<br>
<font color="#888888"><span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br>
-dave</span></font></span></font></p>
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