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Something to read if you've just become unemployed in Massachusetts
By adamg on Sun, 02/08/2009 - 10:48am
Dave Atkins has put together a good guide to collecting unemployment benefits. I was particularly interested in the info on a state program that will reimburse a large fraction of your COBRA health-insurance payments, since I had no idea it existed and since COBRA is pretty scary if you have a family (so hooray for universal health care!).
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You're not eligible for Medical Security Plan until you're receiving unemployment benefits. (Your packet saying you've been approved for unemployment will contain info on this program and how to access it). So if you're getting severance, you aren't eligible. The good thing though is that you can find plans on the Healthcare Connector that are cheaper than your COBRA would be (provided you don't have family members who need plans that cover tons of meds, tons of visits, durable medical equipment, etc.)
Severance and unemployment benefits
It's (fortunately) been a few years since I last had to deal with this, but in my experience some kinds of severance count as salary and some don't. When I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to get severance, the unemployment office considered it to be "not salary" and allowed me to begin collecting immediately.
health insurance for unemployed
see also my followup post on how I found health care other than COBRA...
Bottom line, I ended up choosing a high-deductible plan through the National Association for the Self Employed.
Here is another tip: If you need to call the unemployment office on the phone, do it on Saturday early or late. Every time you earn a little money one week and lose your benefits, you will have to re-file over the phone the next week to restart benefits.