Extend Unemployment and COBRA through 2010

[Dulcinea]

For the second time in two months, Senate Republicans have allowed unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits to run out for millions of jobless Americans - a callous act, indeed.

Even if it passes, the stopgap measure to extend benefits will only stretch another 30 days, leaving another wave of unemployed Americans in limbo at the end of the month.

It's time to put an end to Congress' "we'll figure things out as we go" approach to this nation's unemployment crisis and the needless financial rollercoaster that America's unemployed must endure. A bill to call off all the 30-day extensions and, instead, extend unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits to the end of 2010 is currently under debate in the House.

www.unionofunemployed.com

[rucky]

1. Hopefully COBRA will be obsolete by September.

if I'm reading the HCR enactment timeline correctly.

[BzaDem]

2. Why would it be obsolete?

The ban on exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and community rating, aren't in effect until 2014. So unless you are ensured consistently until then, you can be denied coverage. COBRA allows one to continue to be insured between jobs.

[iamjoy]

3. COBRA Hasn't Ended

For the record COBRA did not "end." People who leave their jobs - voluntarily or involuntarily - are still eligible for up to 18 months COBRA (with some exceptions that have been in place for years). To my knowledge, there hasn't been any serious consideration that COBRA should last longer than a year and a half. What Congress is playing with is whether or not people who are involuntarily terminated should receive a subsidy to help pay for their COBRA and how long that subsidy should last. I realize that some one out of work is going to find it hard (if not impossible) to pay the full cost of COBRA. It can be prohibitive even to some one with a paycheck.


One Republican was saying he considered extending the unemployment subsidies but then thought of his grandchildren and the debt he would be passing on to them for the future. I wondered if it had occurred to him that there is some man out of work right now wondering how he is going to feed his kids today.