Tuesday § February 3, 2009
Freshly laid off and unemployed? Have no fear. It will become cheaper for most people to keep health insurance after losing a job if the government’s stimulus plan becomes law. The purpose of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is to stimulate the economy by preserving and creating jobs, helping the unemployed and uninsured, and assisting states with budget relief measures. The U.S. House of Representatives has just approved measures to expand access to affordable health care coverage for workers who become jobless because of the recession. It is estimated that this package will help 8.2 million people keep their healthcare coverage. Briefly, this legislation would:
- Give a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to one year for workers who have lost their jobs between September 1, 2008 and December 1, 2009;
- Make funding available to states that agree to provide Medicaid coverage to these unemployed and uninsured workers and their families; and
- Extend the COBRA benefits for older and long-term employees until they are able to find new health insurance coverage through future employment or they become eligible for Medicare.
LINK
Sunday § January 11, 2009
Unemployment carries with it all of the mystery of Pandora’s box. Many unemployed beneficiaries are just now finding out that healthcare is not a given as the first checks roll out. Much of a laid-off worker’s healthcare coverage has to do with the spectrum of coverage from the his/her previous employer. For the vast majority of people out of work, the ability to maintain the same level of healthcare coverage has simply become too burdensome. At the tip of the post-unemployment iceberg is an entity whose rules characterize the inability for so many to receive coverage after a job loss — COBRA.
COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) is a law passed by the U.S. Congress during the Reagan administration that, among other things, mandates an insurance program giving some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment. It allows for coverage for up to 18 months in most cases. If the individual is deemed disabled, coverage may continue for up to 29 months. In the case of divorce, coverage may continue for up to 36 months. COBRA does not apply, on the other hand, if employees lose their benefits coverage because the employer has terminated the plan altogether or if the employer has gone out of business.
It also does not require the employer to pay for the cost of providing continuation coverage. Instead, it allows employees and their dependents to maintain coverage at their own expense by paying the full cost of the premium the employer previously paid, plus up to a 2% administrative charge (50% for the latter 11 months under the disability extension).
Ouch! | LINK | LINK 2
Friday § December 12, 2008
No sooner has Tom Daschle taken the job of HHS secretary than we hear that Barack Obama plans to pump major bucks into the federal healthcare economy.
In a stimulus bill that could exceed $500 billion, Obama has already pledged to increase federal Medicaid spending — perhaps by more than $40 billion over two years — and to make a large investment in health information technology.
Talks are underway about also adding money to retrain medical workers, extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and expanding the law that allows unemployed people to purchase health insurance through a previous employer’s plan, known as COBRA.
At a Chicago news conference yesterday to introduce Thomas A. Daschle as his choice for health and human services secretary, Obama said major reform of the health-care system “has to be intimately woven into our overall economic recovery plan.”
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