Uncertainty over new health safety net for jobless
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Uncertainty over new health safety net for jobless
by Peregrine(Endangered) Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:14 am
The Obama administration rushed to include a health care safety net for laid-off workers in the recently signed stimulus bill, but has not told employers exactly how to make it work.
As a result, tens of thousands of jobless people could wait months before getting help paying for health insurance that their employers previously had covered.
"Too many people are still trying to figure this out," said Heath Weems, director of human resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. "There is a lot of confusion."
At issue is the program called COBRA, the acronym for the law that allows workers to keep their company's health insurance plan for 18 months after they leave their job, if they pay the premiums.
The policies are so expensive that only a minority of eligible workers sign up, often those with medical conditions that demand attention. Costs for a family of four can top $1,000 per month.
A $25 billion provision in the stimulus bill aimed to cut COBRA's price tag, reducing its cost by 65 percent for workers laid off as far back as Sept. 1.
The bill gives eligible workers 60 days to apply. Then they get the reduced-cost premium for nine months.
But it's not going to happen right away.
Employers are waiting for instructions from the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service on how to put the program into place. Both agencies posted some information online Thursday.
Until employers get the guidance they need and notify potentially eligible ex-employees, most workers will not apply for the new benefit. Many probably will not know it exists.
Left waiting are people such as Cassandra J. Kelsey, 55. The District of Columbia resident lost her job with Verizon in January. She says she can barely pay her rent and is eating less to save money to cover the $550 a month premium to keep her health coverage under COBRA.
Kelsey walks with a cane and lists a litany of ailments, including degenerative arthritis and hypertension. For her, going without health insurance is unthinkable.
Outside a D.C. career center on a recent morning, Kelsey clutched copies of her COBRA invoice, clippings from a local newspaper about the stimulus bill and a form letter she received from the White House after writing to Obama about her troubles.
Kelsey knew about the reduced premium and said it would bring her COBRA costs below $200 a month. But when she called her benefits department, she was distressed to learn that she would not be able to get the reduced cost immediately, probably not until May.
"I can't take advantage of it now which I think is totally unfair," Kelsey said. "I don't know how I'm going to make it."
The stimulus bill contemplated that workers might not get the reduced premium immediately, and contains a provision that would allow them to be reimbursed later on.
That would be little help to Kelsey and others who need the benefit now.
An IRS spokesman said the agency is moving as fast as it can. A Labor Department spokeswoman responded to questions with an e-mail linking to a short agency fact sheet.
One question that employers are struggling with is how to go back and find employees who were laid off as far back as September.
Also, the legislation says only workers who were "involuntarily terminated" are eligible, but never defines that term. Does it include only people who are laid off? Or those who take buyouts offered by their employers?
No one knows how many people will actually seek a share of the stimulus money to pay their COBRA premiums. Congressional experts estimated 7 million, but that may be too high.
Advocates fear that even cut-rate COBRA could prove too little, too late for some jobless Americans.
"For many people it will remain unaffordable," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.
___
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
COBRA: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRA.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090301/ap_on_go_pr_wh/stimulus_health_insurance
As a result, tens of thousands of jobless people could wait months before getting help paying for health insurance that their employers previously had covered.
"Too many people are still trying to figure this out," said Heath Weems, director of human resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. "There is a lot of confusion."
At issue is the program called COBRA, the acronym for the law that allows workers to keep their company's health insurance plan for 18 months after they leave their job, if they pay the premiums.
The policies are so expensive that only a minority of eligible workers sign up, often those with medical conditions that demand attention. Costs for a family of four can top $1,000 per month.
A $25 billion provision in the stimulus bill aimed to cut COBRA's price tag, reducing its cost by 65 percent for workers laid off as far back as Sept. 1.
The bill gives eligible workers 60 days to apply. Then they get the reduced-cost premium for nine months.
But it's not going to happen right away.
Employers are waiting for instructions from the Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service on how to put the program into place. Both agencies posted some information online Thursday.
Until employers get the guidance they need and notify potentially eligible ex-employees, most workers will not apply for the new benefit. Many probably will not know it exists.
Left waiting are people such as Cassandra J. Kelsey, 55. The District of Columbia resident lost her job with Verizon in January. She says she can barely pay her rent and is eating less to save money to cover the $550 a month premium to keep her health coverage under COBRA.
Kelsey walks with a cane and lists a litany of ailments, including degenerative arthritis and hypertension. For her, going without health insurance is unthinkable.
Outside a D.C. career center on a recent morning, Kelsey clutched copies of her COBRA invoice, clippings from a local newspaper about the stimulus bill and a form letter she received from the White House after writing to Obama about her troubles.
Kelsey knew about the reduced premium and said it would bring her COBRA costs below $200 a month. But when she called her benefits department, she was distressed to learn that she would not be able to get the reduced cost immediately, probably not until May.
"I can't take advantage of it now which I think is totally unfair," Kelsey said. "I don't know how I'm going to make it."
The stimulus bill contemplated that workers might not get the reduced premium immediately, and contains a provision that would allow them to be reimbursed later on.
That would be little help to Kelsey and others who need the benefit now.
An IRS spokesman said the agency is moving as fast as it can. A Labor Department spokeswoman responded to questions with an e-mail linking to a short agency fact sheet.
One question that employers are struggling with is how to go back and find employees who were laid off as far back as September.
Also, the legislation says only workers who were "involuntarily terminated" are eligible, but never defines that term. Does it include only people who are laid off? Or those who take buyouts offered by their employers?
No one knows how many people will actually seek a share of the stimulus money to pay their COBRA premiums. Congressional experts estimated 7 million, but that may be too high.
Advocates fear that even cut-rate COBRA could prove too little, too late for some jobless Americans.
"For many people it will remain unaffordable," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.
___
On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
COBRA: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/COBRA.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090301/ap_on_go_pr_wh/stimulus_health_insurance
Peregrine(Endangered)-
Number of posts : 1132
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Humor : lots
Registration date : 2009-01-13
Re: Uncertainty over new health safety net for jobless
by Guest Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:52 pm
While this kind of sucks, something else is really starting to irritate me. We really are a nation of whiners. Kelsey could be receiving no help at all, but she'll be able to get help in May, and while things are hard for her (which I understand) she should really be grateful that the government is willing to help out with COBRA cost in the first place.
The same goes with all the stimulus stuff, and the housing plan as well. All I see is people complaining that they won't get help, or that they won't get help when they need it at all. IMO - if this is how the American people behave when their government is trying their hardest to try and help us out then it just shows a huge lack of character. (Again, just my opinion.) I know that if my kids were to complain as much as some people about a toy that was promised to them, they would go without. (And I'd likely take away several other things for having such a poor attitude.)
The same goes with all the stimulus stuff, and the housing plan as well. All I see is people complaining that they won't get help, or that they won't get help when they need it at all. IMO - if this is how the American people behave when their government is trying their hardest to try and help us out then it just shows a huge lack of character. (Again, just my opinion.) I know that if my kids were to complain as much as some people about a toy that was promised to them, they would go without. (And I'd likely take away several other things for having such a poor attitude.)
Guest- Guest
Re: Uncertainty over new health safety net for jobless
by Grim17 Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:32 am
lisan24 wrote:While this kind of sucks, something else is really starting to irritate me. We really are a nation of whiners. Kelsey could be receiving no help at all, but she'll be able to get help in May, and while things are hard for her (which I understand) she should really be grateful that the government is willing to help out with COBRA cost in the first place.
The same goes with all the stimulus stuff, and the housing plan as well. All I see is people complaining that they won't get help, or that they won't get help when they need it at all. IMO - if this is how the American people behave when their government is trying their hardest to try and help us out then it just shows a huge lack of character. (Again, just my opinion.) I know that if my kids were to complain as much as some people about a toy that was promised to them, they would go without. (And I'd likely take away several other things for having such a poor attitude.)
The promise of "Hand-outs" by Obama, is exactly what his supporters voted for... Now they want to collect.
When the government gives people hand-outs, instead of offering them a hand-up, this exactly the kind of society you are going to get. Why would anyone pound the pavement for 12 hours a day to get any job that might be available, or maybe take on a second job to earn extra money, when they know that the government will provide for them?
When a person is given the things they want, instead of having to earn them, they won't respect those things, the people they received them from, and most importantly, they won't have any respect for themselves.
It's the same as it is with children. If you give a kid $20 every week so they can go out with their friends, and they don't have to do anything to earn that money, what happens when they need $200 dollars for something? They will expect the parents to give it to them, with no strings attached. If they refuse, or try and make the kid work for it, they will through a fit and demand they give it to them. Now, If you give a kid $20 a week for doing odd jobs around the house, and that kid needs $200, that kid will ask if he can do extra work for that money, because he knows that anything he wants, he has to earn. Now let's say the parents simply don't have $200 they can spare. Instead of that kid throwing a fit and demanding the money from his parents, he will go out and find some other way he can earn it.
That demonstrates the difference between "using an opportunity to provide for someone", and "providing someone with an opportunity"... A hand-out vs. a hand-up.
I'm sorry lisan, but that's the kind of character that government hand-outs and welfare builds in people.
Grim17-
Number of posts : 430
Age : 59
Location : Phoenix, Arizona
Registration date : 2009-01-17
Re: Uncertainty over new health safety net for jobless
by Guest Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:02 am
I voted for Obama and I expect nothing. In fact, I have found that most of the people whining about not getting their handouts (at least in my area and online) have been Republicans who did not vote for Obama... interesting. I think they're just throwing a fit like they do over every other little thing that Obama does.
Plus, their not handouts. Reducing the cost of COBRA is not a handout, it's an attempt to help out right now. (And COBRA prices are usually insane. My dad was paying $2,200 to insure 3 people through COBRA.) Sure, it's trying to add money to unemployment (but simply because it's needed due to the increase of claims), and sure those who are on SSI are getting an extra... $25 (wooo, that's a lot). But the majority of the stimulus is job creation, NOT handouts.
Americans attitude's have always been poor, this isn't something that just started. Hardly - we've been accused of being a nation of whiners for years.
Plus, their not handouts. Reducing the cost of COBRA is not a handout, it's an attempt to help out right now. (And COBRA prices are usually insane. My dad was paying $2,200 to insure 3 people through COBRA.) Sure, it's trying to add money to unemployment (but simply because it's needed due to the increase of claims), and sure those who are on SSI are getting an extra... $25 (wooo, that's a lot). But the majority of the stimulus is job creation, NOT handouts.
Americans attitude's have always been poor, this isn't something that just started. Hardly - we've been accused of being a nation of whiners for years.
Guest- Guest
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