The Virginian-Pilot
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If a federal subsidy is not extended to help jobless people pay for health care, unemployed Virginians will have to spend 84.1 percent of their jobless benefits on COBRA health coverage, a Washington group said today.
Under the COBRA program, many jobless people may continue health coverage from their former employers for 18 months or more if they pay the full cost of premiums. The federal stimulus package this year cut those costs by nearly two-thirds, requiring the U.S. government to pay 65 percent of COBRA costs.
The subsidy, however, lasts for only nine months. Those who signed on March 1, when the subsidy first took effect, now must pay the full cost of COBRA coverage. The subsidy is available for people who lose their jobs through Dec. 31.
In Virginia, the full cost of family health coverage under COBRA averages $1,078, according to Families USA, a Washington research group. That’s $701 more than the $377-a-month payment required for individuals with the COBRA subsidy.
The total COBRA bill would take up 84.1 percent of the average monthly unemployment benefit of $1,283 in Virginia, the group said. That is slightly higher than the national average of 83.4 percent.
For those who lose the subsidy, “the overwhelming majority of them will become uninsured, undoubtedly,” said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA. “You can’t pay 83 percent of your unemployment insurance check for COBRA subsidies and still have any meaningful income left for shelter, for food or the other necessities of life.”
Bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House to extend the COBRA subsidy, Pollack said.
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Bologna!
I know 2 min wage people one with diabetes and various other illness's and the other who is over 60 has all the age associated disorders ranging from blood pressure to a sleeping disorder. They get everything they need and pay nothing! My wife and I pay BCBS bi weekly but I still had to pay $1800 after a kydney stone. So who is better off?
No, it won't
Ending that subsidy will not change how much health care costs for the unemployed, it will change who pays for it.
Government money is not free, it has to be taken from someone (likely someone who has not yet been born as deep in debt as we are) before it can be given to anyone.
We Pay Either Way
Is it better for the taxpayer to subsidize health insurance for the unemployed so they can go their regular doctor for a one-hour visit for a fever or wait until their condition gets bad enough that they have to go to the emergency room and spend a few days in the hospital also at taxpayers expense thanks to Medicaid? Seems like the subsidy is a better deal for the taxpayers (and future generations of taxpayers).
Here Here Doc
Federal Subsidy = My Tax Dollars
wow ...
I wonder if your health insurance is paid for by your employer ... who is receiving a tax break?
Or perhaps you work for the Government? I know alot of people who were laid off from their jobs and without this federal help, their families would go without insurance. Is that a better answer?
Here we go . . .
& right on time - our "watchdogs" in media doing their part to foist Obamacare on us using more scare tactics.
Be careful what you fall for. Readers need to check out the org "Families USA", the executive director of which is quoted in this article; what agendas they've pushed in the past; & what kind of other orgs/faces make up their Board of Directors (e.g. SEIU & GLAAD) thus, their slant.
Like People for the American Way, these innocuous, if not downright appealing, org names often belie their true intentions.