Recipients hail Cobra subsidy extension, By Victoria Colliver, December 22, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Christmas came a little early for unemployed people who’ve put health insurance at the top of their wish list. Congress, under pressure to provide additional help for people who have lost their jobs and health benefits, passed legislation to extend federal subsidies to help people pay for their former employer’s health insurance. Lawmakers also agreed to extend the eligibility period to sign up for assistance. As part of the stimulus bill passed in February, the federal government subsidized 65 percent of the cost for unemployed people who opted to continue their employer’s health insurance coverage. A person can pay to stay on his or her former employer’s group policy – generally for a maximum of 18 months – through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, a federal law better known as Cobra…”
Tag: Health care subsidies
Extension of Jobless Benefits
A plea to Congress on jobless benefits, By Erik Eckholm, December 7, 2009, New York Times: “State labor officials and worker advocates on Monday appealed for quick Congressional action to extend emergency unemployment benefits and to renew health insurance subsidies for the long-term jobless. Prolonged unemployment insurance, passed this year in the stimulus act, expires this month, and officials estimate that more than one million workers will see benefits end in January if Congress does not act. The health subsidies, under which the federal government pays 65 percent of insurance costs under Cobra for up to nine months, have already expired and are not available to the newly unemployed, who will have to pay family premiums averaging $1,100 if they want to keep their existing health plans…”
Unemployment and COBRA Health Insurance Subsidy
- 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…”