Feds will help with COBRA payment
Washington – The new stimulus package that was signed into law on February 17 of this year includes a provision for the federal government to subsidize sixty five percent of the cost of health insurance through COBRA for workers who have lost their jobs between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. COBRA, which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, allows individuals to retain their company health insurance coverage for eighteen, and sometimes up to thirty six months after they leave an employer, but the individual has had to pay the entire premium up until now.
Many workers find that if COBRA is not available, they have health issues that exclude them from private health care coverage.
In the past, many people have elected not to keep COBRA coverage because it is too expensive, often costing an average of $1000.00 a month for family coverage.
In 2008, the average monthly payment for COBRA coverage was $1183.00. The new stimulus package changes the rules temporarily.
People who earn less than $250,000 a year, $125,000 for individually will only have to pay 35 percent of the COBRA premium for the first nine months, with the federal government paying the remaining 65 percent.
Individuals who have lost their job during this time period should hear from their employer within sixty days (by April 17). People who lose their job after February 17, 2009 should expect to hear from their employers within 44 days of termination, or they can contact the Department of Labor to get started sooner.
Major health insurance companies are beginning to offer plans specifically targeted to people who are currently covered under COBRA.
They are offering plans that can save financially strapped people even more money, if they do their homework. In addition, there are many online health insurance comparison companies that offer people the opportunity to input basic information about themselves and get quotes on different types of health plans.
eHealthInsurance.com is one such comparison site. GoHealth Insurance, another online health insurance comparison site, launched a COBRA information center where people can go to learn more about whether they qualify for the subsidized COBRA plan, or if they are better off exploring other individual health insurance options. One drawback, however, is the fact that COBRA coverage does not apply when a company drops its group health care coverage or declares bankruptcy.
Most experts agree, in these tough economic times, if you lose your job and have access to COBRA, it would almost always be in your best interest to take advantage of it, especially now that the government is going to pick up a good portion of the tab.
Newt Gingrich has some great ideas on health care reform. I found them at Newt.org.
I worked for an insurance co. It cost $40.00 a month for every thing. When I retired and was healthy, they wanted me to sign up for Cobra at $400.00 a month. Are they crazy?
anyone seen the cost of cobra? about 800/1000 per month, unemployment tops out at about 370 every 2 week, so that still leave the unemployed paying about 50% of the money coming into the household on insurance alone, never mind food, housing, clothing. Thanks, hay gov’t, why not just set up free clinic’s, treat people who are ILLEGALLY in the country to get them well enough to ship home, ‘their home’. That will save more than a few bucks, especially here in Calif.
Oh, by the way we don’t have enough water here, so no building permits, no jobs, no paying taxes, just how much water is estimated to being used by ILLEGAL aliens?? We only have a few million here is what used to be Calif. or is Mexico taking it back in an undisclosed war?
This is not fair for other people such as ‘self employed’. They pay private insurance rates and pay higher fed taxes. I can see that the world wasn’t meant to be fair.
Are you nuts?!?!!!?!?!? the unemployed don’t get enough money to afford the auto insurance HELLO PLEASE LISTEN I’M ONE OF THE UNEMPLOYED it’s a real struggle to come up monthly highest rates in the country because they bought our state and it’s courts long ago but auto insurance MUST BE LOWERED NOW and forget COBRA unless the gov’t is will to pick up the tab we can’t afford even a dollar a month WE ARE BROKE AND BARELY EATING. Now repeat after me: “INSURANCE IS THE PROBLEM NOT THE ANSWER”. ONCE MORE INSURANCE (who does not want to be in the health insurance biz anymore btw) IS THE PROBLEM NOT THE ANSWER AND RIGHT NOW WE THE MAJORITY CAN’T AFFORD ANY INSURANCE WE CAN’T STAND THE WEIGHT OF MORE PAYMENTS THAT’S THE ONLY REASON OUR PHONES RING NOW IS TO MAKE PAYMEN TO SOMEONE SOMEWHERE FOR SOMETHING.