Cool Tech,
If you can afford it, I'd keep both. Sign-up for the company insurance plan, but keep your private policy. If you leave or get laid off you will still have the private plan to fall back on, which sounds like a very good plan in and of itself. I wouldn't buy the Enbrel on the private plan, I'd use the group insurance for that. Keep both active, remember every year you age the more expensive private insurance is, so just hang to your private policy.
My husband who was 51 when he was laid off, me, age 48 and my daughter 12 - now have a private plan with Kaiser Permanente. We had to do something when the Cobra benefits ran out, and we were two years older than when he was laid off. Our Kaiser Permanente PPO costs us about $11,000 per year for the insurance and another $2,000 or $3,000 in out of pocket co-pays.
The cost of health insurance in the US plus not being able to afford house helpers and the like as I get more stiff, is one of the main reasons we are planing to relocate to Costa Rica. We just can't afford to retire here with the cost of insurance so high.
Gay
