Insurance help for unemployed people
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Workers who lose their jobs usually lose their health benefits. But the federal government is giving laid-off people a hefty discount to help them hold onto their coverage.
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Transcript:
When someone leaves a job a federal law called COBRA allows them to temporarily keep their workplace health insurance. But it's a pricey option. A single person can pay $400 a month. Family plans cost $1000 or more.
The federal stimulus plan gives laid-off workers a 65 percent discount for nine months. But in Pennsylvania small businesses don't qualify for COBRA, so workers laid off from small firms don't get a break on their premiums. Representative Rob Matzie is sponsoring the House bill that would change that.
Matzie: Unless we have the statue in place for the mini-COBRA to cover small employers — who have between two and 20 employees — we would not be able to take advantage of this relief under the stimulus package.
A similar bill has already cleared the state Senate.
Millions of Americans who lost their jobs prior to September 1, 2008 could not afford Cobra. Millions more elected Cobra but have now depleted their resources and can not continue on. Still millions more with pre-existing conditions who rely on cobra to bridge the 18 month gap between their former employers insurance and their state's high risk insurance pools are struggling to pay their premiums every month to prevent being locked out of insurance permanently.
Please join us in asking Congress and the Obama administration to eliminate the arbitrary September 1, 2008 cut-off date and 9 month limitation of assistance by signing our petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cobrareform and telling your friends about our efforts. For more information, please see our website at http://cobrareform.weebly.com.