The "Cold Sweats" Story

It was an ordinary day. Very relaxful day. Nothing to do that needed immediate attention. My wife and I were talking about the new sink-hole insurance we just took out on out property. Quite a few years ago my insurance agent called and asked if I was interested in a flood rider on my policy, just in case. I didn't think so, but questioned him about 'why' I needed it and how much it was going to cost me. After going over the reasons and the price, I thought why not. A few weeks later we had 21" of water in the basement, coming from heavy rains that caused the water to enter through a french drain in the basement. Lucky! Well, this time we called him after seeing a few houses lost because of underground streams causing sink-holes that swallowed parts of their homes. We decided it was time for the sink-hole insurance. During our the conversation I all of a sudden got chills. Wow, when was the last time I paid for Carol's health insurance I thought to myslef. When I went on Medicare, Carol lost her health insurance that I had through my job as a teacher. We searched and found that the Cobra plan from the old insurance was the best and really our only option. Still not cheap, but our only option. I grabbed the check book and looked back over the last month's checks. No check to Cobra. Uh Oh. Then I started to sweat. We were almost at the end of the month and hadn't received a bill for next month. Maybe they thought we didn't want the insurance and longer since I forgot to pay last month. Couldn't sleep that night, going over all the negative things I could think of that were going to happen because of my stupid mistake. Early the next day I called the Cobra Administrator that handles the policy and asked why I didn't get a statement for payment. I gave the woman my wife's policy number and waited. She came back on the phone and said, "This is really strange. Looks like we didn't bill you last month ..... or this month. Seems that your group hasn't set the price for the new year yet." I asked, "Is my wife without insurance now?" "No, don't worry about that," she said as I felt warmth come back to my body. I told her I have someone with me that I am relaying this info to and they heard her day that my wife is still covered. She laughed and said not to worry. I have received a notice since for the 2 months and immediately sent the check. Can't imagine what it must be like to live without insurance. I know that so many can't afford it and I hope they never have a major illness. It could be so devastating, as I now realize from my sleepless night. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.