End of COBRA subsidies – reaction
December 2, 2009Jon Brooks Comments Off“This story should be a screaming headline on the front page – not buried on page 9999 in blogland. What is the US coming to?”
Just one of the comments left on the New York Times site in reponse to an article about the end of COBRA subsidies yesterday. The subsidies, part of the stimulus package passed in February, cover 65% of COBRA premiums for nine months for those laid off from September 2008 to December 2009. So unless Congress acts, the cost of health insurance premiums for millions of jobless Americans is going to triple.
So Congress lets this slide. But had it been AIG or Goldman Sach, Mon Dieu, how Congress would have jumped into action! Thanks for nothing, Obama, thanks for nothing Democrats, thanks for nothing Republicans! Middle-class Americans, we are so on our own.
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What sort of country do we live in? Do we have no shame? How can we allow this to happen to our people? Anybody who calls themselves a Christian needs to look into their soul in private and ask themselves these questions. We are a considered to be barbaric by people in other countries. What you think of people in Afghanistan, Europe is thinking of us. We are allowing thousands of Americans, yes Americans, to die every year, allowing tens of thousands , millions to suffer every year. How can we do this? How in God’s name can we do this?
Talk about getting kicked while down. Why does this exist in the US? My wife had to pay about the same amount as she received from unemployment for Cobra.
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Sure enough, mine have risen to over $1,400 which is shockingly high given that I still have to pay $40 for most office visits and copays on prescriptions. We need some alternative to this kind of consumer gouging.
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It is very frustrating that this bill was not passed in time to affect change for myself and the many people whose subsidy has now run out. The original subsidy took 2-3 months after it was passed to have an affect on the price of insurance through COBRA and for me to be credited the overpayment.
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We extend the $8K credit for people to buy new homes, but stop helping people pay for COBRA? COBRA has never been much help, but it’s been some – it allows people to “buy in” to their former employer’s health plan at cost plus a handling fee. It’s very expensive – most jobless people can’t afford to pay for it for long, but it’s been a wonderful stop-gap for people who are between jobs, who can dip into their savings until they are re-employed and re-insured, without having that deadly “gap in coverage” which gives health insurance companies an excuse not to insure them. But what now? There are no jobs. If they extend unemployment, they should extend COBRA subsidies. It’s not like people who lost their jobs (and COBRA has always been for those who were gainfully employed) would still have money to pay the high fees. Family health insurance costs about $1200-$1500 month — the subsidy brought that to a much more managable level, still hard for people, but made it possible to get health care. It’s not like they can go find alternative coverage on the blessed open market some people are such fans of.
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What will all the people without jobs do? We’ll end up paying for their ER care anyhow, so why don’t we do the humane thing and help people who were formerly employed hold on until there are real jobs, or until there is some kind of an affordable public plan they can buy into.
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I am friends with a Family Physician who directs a state health clinic. Last spring they had a surge of new patients due to large layoffs in the area. No job = no health insurance and not enough money to pay for COBRA. And, when they went to their regular doctor’s office, some had been with the same doc for 20 years, they go the door slammed in their face. At the state clinic, if they agree to make payments, they will be charged $90 for a routine visit–Medicare rate. If not, then $190 for the real cost of the visit, but the clinic knows the bill won’t be paid and the taxpayers, namely me, will have to eat it.
