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It is good to see that Senate Democrats are acting more progressive less evil less clueless than their House counterparts. They are pushing to include the COBRA subsidies in the tax extender bill after the House dropped them. From Huffington Post:
Unless the law is changed, any worker laid off after June 1 will not be eligible for COBRA subsidies, though workers laid off earlier will continue receiving the subsidy.
Extending COBRA will cost $8 billion, but [Sen. Robert] Casey, who led the last effort to extend benefits, is unfazed. “It’s an emergency and when you’re in an emergency you use emergency spending,” he said in a conference call with progressive media Wednesday. “My amendment will make sure that we have eligibility for COBRA extended through November. To do otherwise would be a terrible mistake for real people, for real families, and a terrible mistake for our economy.”
For a second, let’s leave aside the moral issue that we should help people in need. Let’s also leave aside the huge hypocrisy of Democrats pounding out the message last year about how important it was to provide more people with health insurance. On a purely political basis, not including the COBRA subsidies is a horrible idea.
Democrats spend a whole year working on a new law to expand health insurance. Yet, a significant number of House Democrats thought it would be a good idea to cut off health insurance for thousands of people by not extending the COBRA subsidies. By the mid-term election, there would probably be more uninsured Americans than before Democrats starting working on health care. It is hard to come up with a better way to undermine the last two years of Democratic control and the health care law.
I doubt any members of Congress will lose a single vote because they voted for a tax extender bill with, say, a $123 billion price tag instead of $115 billion. On the other hand, if thousands of additional Americans lose their health insurance, after Democrats spend a whole year on a bill “guaranteeing health insurance for all Americans,” that could really cost members of Congress some votes. It is good to see the Senate Democrats for once are planning on doing the sensible thing, and are not joining the House Blue Dogs’ collective political suicide pact on this issue.
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While there is certainly a political cost of not extending the COBRA subsidy, the financial savings (8 Billion) must be weighed againts the impact of sending more uninsured to the Emergency Rooms of public hospitals – further strainging state and local budgets.
If you are one of the unlucky ones to have lost their jobs since May 31, 2010 – Visit cobrareform.weebly.com for alternatives.
I think this is both good and bad. When I used COBRA once, the cost of the insurance was so high I dropped it after a couple of months, cursing the money I’d spent. Being out of work means that expensive COBRA plan is devouring your savings rapidly. Many, many people opt not to get it for exactly that reason.
For those fortunate enough to have substantial savings, this may be a great benefit, and it deserves extending for that reason. For everyone else, it’s just another piece of the pie deliberately designed so only the wealthy can afford it.
We need single-payer insurance. We get our savings drained, instead.
Someone please remind me again what this government is good for. It isn’t good for the people.
Every day the Democrats reaffirm my discust.
There’s no option but to dump this entire Democratic party filled with manuevering phoney posers.
The COBRA subsidy has save the former employees that my company has had to lay off more than $170,000 in insurance premiums. It costs them slightly more than what they were deducted from their paychecks while they were employed. In my opinion, this is the single best thing Congress has done in years.
Yeah I would prepare Dems to extend the subsidy all the way to 2014 like they had once planned.
It’s bipartisan rapaciousness and greed that brought us here, make no mistake about it.
I was stunned as I watched the House not only eliminate COBRA but the unemployment benefits for millions of workers AND Medicaid and put it all in the Afghan War kitty.
The Senate appears to be realizing this is a mistake,but the house blue dogs…what will they do when it comes back to them?
Pennsylvania governor: U.S. will fall back into recession if Congress doesn’t approve Medicaid assistance
Could we convince Goldman Sachs or BP to favor extending COBRA? Our “elected representatives” seem to listen closely to their wishes….
Yeah a decade ago, I had to drop my Cobra because the price – $1,200 a month — for me alone, was simply laughable for one unemployed.
After losing is his job of 17 years, my brother’s subsidized COBRA is $150, which at that price he can continue, until he finds a job.
It was plain stupidity on the part of the House to drop the COBRA subsidies (and mean-spirited stupidity, at that.)