- COBRA subsidies begin expiring for the unemployed, By Kathy M. Kristof, November 30, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs, thanks to the looming expiration of a government subsidy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February, launched a temporary government program to subsidize the often crippling cost of buying health insurance through a former employer’s plan after a layoff. However, the so-called COBRA subsidy was designed to last no more than nine months for each person who was unemployed. Hundreds of thousands who got this subsidy when it was first made available in March are slated to roll off the program today…”
- Expiring health insurance subsidy imperils laid-off Americans, By Tony Pugh, November 27, 2009, Kansas City Star: “Just before Don Hall and his family left town for Thanksgiving, the laid-off manufacturing supervisor from Castalia, Ohio, wrote a $763.81 check to his health insurance company for his December payment. He had paid $237 in November, but the big increase wasn’t due to rising health costs or a catastrophic illness – and it wasn’t an isolated incident. Hall, 56, is among an estimated 7 million unemployed Americans who get a federal subsidy to help them buy health insurance under legislation known as the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act…”
- Health insurance subsidy for jobless to phase out, By Philip Walzer, November 28, 2009, Virginian-Pilot: “A federal subsidy that has saved unemployed people hundreds of dollars a month in health-insurance costs will begin phasing out next week. The COBRA program allows many people out of work to continue health coverage for at least 18 months through the plans they had with their employers. They normally have to pay the full cost of the premiums, but a COBRA subsidy in the federal stimulus package signed in February by President Barack Obama slashed their costs by nearly two-thirds…”
- Insurance aid for jobless to expire Tuesday: Thousands in R.I. will begin to lose subsidy, By Cynthia Needham, November 28, 2009, Providence Journal: “Beginning Tuesday, the first of thousands of unemployed Rhode Islanders will exhaust a federal stimulus subsidy that has helped them afford temporary health insurance. A provision within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allows a 65-percent discount on COBRA, the law that lets laid-off workers purchase group health benefits though their former employer for up to 18 months…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty