Dems Move To Reinstate COBRA Subsidies

As the Senate debates a bill to reauthorize expired domestic aid programs, including a provision to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have introduced an amendment that would add COBRA back into the extenders bill.

"Millions of Americans have been hard hit by the recession and lost their jobs through no fault of their own," said Senator Casey in a statement Wednesday. "Unfortunately, some people in Washington want to pull up the ladder and take away help for these struggling families. Not extending COBRA premium assistance will hurt hundreds of thousands of people in Pennsylvania and across the country and it will add further strain on our recovering economy."

Fifteen percent of all unemployment insurance recipients rely on the reduced insurance premiums offered by COBRA, the program that allows workers to continue buying their employer-provided health coverage after they've been laid off.

Without the 65 percent subsidy created by the stimulus, COBRA is too expensive for many: Family premiums for COBRA coverage average $1,107 a month for unemployed families without subsidy--that's 84.3 percent of their monthly unemployment insurance checks.

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 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."

The amendment was introduced just a day after President Obama pressed Congress to extend COBRA subsidies in a statement during a town hall question and answer session. The President suggested that while not a long-term solution, COBRA subsidies are necessary since the major provisions of health care reform have yet to kicked in.

A letter from Casey and Brown sent Wednesday to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus calls for support for adding COBRA to the extenders bill though November of 2010.

Comments

[amygdalalama]

01:32 AM on 06/11/2010

The COBRA subsidies are one of the most useful benefits they've put in to deal with the recession. What I don't get is why they didn't use these plus allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plus banning pre-existing conditions, rather than creating 2,000 pages of health care reform legislation.

[Littlewords]

06:24 PM on 06/10/2010

Hummm, wonder where the party of NO is going to side on this one? Will they help the people this time, given a consistent batting average of .000

[MarkInIrvine]

12:49 AM on 06/11/2010

My sources say: "no".

[OurTurn]

03:18 PM on 06/10/2010

Thank you Senators Casey and Brown.

[MollieinATL]

02:57 PM on 06/10/2010

Dear United States,

PLEASE extend COBRA subsidies! My family is almost out-of-the-woods and we haven't taken a dime of unemployment. We have been living off the nest egg and paying our share of taxes.

I have always paid taxes, held a job and paid into unemployment and social security. This is the first time I've taken government assistance and a day doesn't go by that I am grateful to my country for helping out.

I promise to pay it all back with productivity and service.

Thank you,

Mollie in Atlanta

[Solymer]

02:29 PM on 06/10/2010

Cobra is not going to help those 99ers you've turned your backs on. That's where the help is needed most at this time. Bernake even came out yesterday saying this is not the time to cut spending since all signs point towards a double dip. Put out a robust jobs bill and give those people another extension. We need serious help and the free market isn't doing a damn thing to help. So government must pick up the slack. If you can afford a trillion for wars then you can afford to help people at home.

[Downrivers]

10:20 AM on 06/10/2010

The unemployment benefits roles fell because congress did not extend EUC. Without senate action millions will lose their benefits AND COBRA insurance. Thousands will be forced into bankruptcy. Consumer spending is going to tank, and with it, there goes the house of cards congress calls the "recovery

[jcwtts1]

09:51 AM on 06/10/2010

You're looking at the 2016 ticket there. Brown and Casey put an electoral college lock on the Presidential race pulling not just PA and OH but playing great with progressives and moderates within the party.

As for the COBRA subsidies people are acting like this crazy economy is over, that things are normal. They aren't, we're about to get hit with another wave of forclosures as the teaser rates balloon in 2011. People still can't find work, the budget shortfalls for states is insane, the pension system is underfunded and almost impossible to fix. Immigration, Energy, Climate, Education still need to be addressed and sooner rather than later. We have made a good start but that is what it is. The fall elections will tell the tale of which direction this country is going.

[clevelandchick]

12:34 PM on 06/10/2010

I'd love to see Sherrod Brown as a POTUS candidate in 2016, he's one of the few real Dems that does fight for the little guy.

He's kept his promise to not go on the federal health employee program until his constituents had affordable health care...he was a House Rep for 14 years and paid his own insurance out of his pocket.

[MarkInIrvine]

12:51 AM on 06/11/2010

I'm thinkin' I could vote for this guy!

[scipio2009]

04:43 AM on 06/11/2010

If that is sincerely the ticket, which I'm doubting, the real question would be how would the order on the ticket fall into place. You seemingly are pointing to a Brown-Casey ticket but, in my opinion, that far more plausible scenario would be a Casey-Brown ticket, with the moderate leading the way, as I imagine the primary race coming together.

Still, if the ticket does end up being Casey-Brown, I honestly can picture a situation where folks on sites, like this one, would quickly turn on Casey, especially for the fact that he's a pro-life Democrat. I'm just sayin'.

[Figerre]

09:24 AM on 06/10/2010

i don't know what state pays more than $1100 in unemployment benefits, it sure ain't Arizona. $940 is the HIGHEST paid and rents for a 2 BR, if you have a family - run $800+ add COBRA to that!!!

[sueinmn]

01:40 AM on 06/11/2010

Add utilities, insurances, CC and auto debt. Food, gas and life for children to keep them healthy and occupied. The list is endless. Even washing clothes if you lost your home. Its expensive! Food has gone up sharply. UI is barely making ends meet but we do! Mine ended and I have zero coming in and no jobs at all! Zero dollars means zero food!

[billhodges]

08:21 AM on 06/10/2010

All of this handout mentality has got to stop because the government does not have the funds needed to support it. The government should not be handing out other peoples tax dollars through entitlement programs and extended unemployment handouts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBTyTWOZCM&feature=youtu.be

[cybermome1207]

08:49 AM on 06/10/2010

Only someone employed would have the chutzpah to say something like that. Are hand outs to big corporations that caused the recession and mass lay offs ok?

[ForObamaInDallas]

09:39 AM on 06/10/2010

Ignore Billhodges. He's a "reicht wing" conservative that thinks that anyone who is not a republican feels "entitled."

[clevelandchick]

12:43 PM on 06/10/2010

The gov't has 58% of our budget to pay for two clusterf***s in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The gov't has 9 billion dollars to give oil companies in subsidies.

The gov't has money to bail out billionaires in the financial industry.

But you're telling me our own gov't doesn't have money to keep 6-10 million people off the streets of the United States of America?

That money at least goes BACK INTO the economy and IS TAXED.

There are 6 applicants for every 1 available job and many employers are proudly instituting policies that refuse hiring of unemployed citizens:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/04/disturbing-job-ads-the-un_n_600665.html

What the h3ll do you expect people to do? Prostitution? Sell Drugs? Live under freeway bridges and put their children into foster care?

The lack of education, logic, intelligence and compassion of those who call themselves conservative never ceases to amaze me.

[scipio2009]

04:57 AM on 06/11/2010

A lot of nifty fabrications that most folks would miss. unfortunately, I'm not most folks.

Just so you do understand the U.S. budget is near $4 trillion. Hopefully that helps you clear up your information a bit. I no HuffPost has a history of heavly using hyperbole, but if your seriously trying to make a sincere point, it helps to use accurate information.

Now, I'm a proud Democrat, so that shouldn't be confused. Still, you can sit on here and try to argue that the United States of America is spending half the federal budget in Aghanistan and Iraq, because that is patently false. 9 years in Afghanistan, 6 years in Iraq, at an estimated total cost of $1 trillion, and you're looking at roughly $67 billion per year, per conflict. This year's direct spending on Iraq and Afghanistan will probably approach $150 billion. Still a lot of money, but not half the budget.

We should've never gone into Iraq. In my opinion, we are rightfully in Afghanistan. You can agree or disagree; to me, it doesn't matter.

Still, when you stick to the concrete facts, your story becomes stronger instead of being an easy target for someone to tear down, as a result of your hyperbole.

[SirSlappy]

07:10 AM on 06/10/2010

Imagine how fast this stuff would be getting done if the Dems had spines.

[RFAstill]

07:38 AM on 06/10/2010

yeah, they would have reconciled the public option, let hr3961 (doc fix) disappear (and blame it on the Repubs... fully knowing that any expansion of Medicaid/Medicare would be even less afforadable if one pays doctors,nurses, etc what they are worth), and then convince the whole medical community to 'accept' below cost payments for everything...

[Jim281]

08:03 AM on 06/10/2010

Imagine how fast it would get done if the PARTY OF NO didn't behave like a spoiled, willful child!

[SirSlappy]

06:30 PM on 06/10/2010

Imagine how few of Bush's afrronts to the nation would have been stopped in their tracks if the Dems could ever be the Party of No. Dems should be learning from this.
They ain't.

[957]

06:22 AM on 06/10/2010

Isn't the wonderful health care bill the you democrats passed suppose to take care of all Americans and provide affordable health care for all? What happened?

[ForObamaInDallas]

09:39 AM on 06/10/2010

I-D-10-T.

[RMorr2002]

10:15 AM on 06/10/2010

Sounds like a legitimate question to me!

[clevelandchick]

12:48 PM on 06/10/2010

Many Americans will qualify for subsidized health care if Congress cuts COBRA. Parents can include their kids up to the age of 26 now. Millions of children now have access to health care that didn't before. And the government is sending out Medicare donut-hole reimbursements to millions of seniors as we speak.

Yeah...it IS pretty wonderful now that I think about it. Thanks!

[madisonhack]

06:12 AM on 06/10/2010

I hope this passes. Opponents have no idea what the ill effects of being un-insured have on our economy. That point was made abundantly clear during the debate on HCR.

[f252863]

05:17 AM on 06/10/2010

" "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."

Is this the new mantra of the Democratic party? Everything is an "emergency" and unless billions are spent the world will come apart.

We seem to be in a new era of unbridled spending, anything goes and the more stimulus the better. In the meantime European governments are enacting large cutbacks in their public sector (wow, they got it right), Hungary is cutting taxes to spur development and the people are waking up to the implications of huge deficits. Yet we march on adding to our deficits with abandon?

Shows how desperate the politicians are, elections are coming out and they are falling over each other to buy votes. This system is so corrupt.

[SirSlappy]

07:11 AM on 06/10/2010

Yeah... it's a little trick they picked up from 8 yrs of the Bush administration

[Tekkdude]

01:55 PM on 06/10/2010

First of all, most economists agree that instituting these austerity programs to cut their deficits are disastrous policy in the midst of an economic recession. These cuts are going to kill the current recovery and plunge the economies of these countries further into recession killing any gains made by the cutbacks due to losses in tax revenue. Second, we all saw how successful tax cuts were during the Bush administration in spurring development. It should be clear to all by now that tax cuts (at least how they are enacted by conservatives) have nothing to do with spurring development and everything to do with redistributing wealth to the top. If you want to see what happens in countries that pass austerity measures to cut their deficits and thereby cut social programs read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. The end result of these programs is always more money for the rich and politically connected while leaving the majority of the countries citizens to suffer in poverty. The cycle has been tried in numerous Latin American economies, Poland, Russia, Iraq, over and over again and the result is always the same.

[realpolitic]

04:04 AM on 06/10/2010

Without the Dems, the entire nation would be impoverished. We might have a handfull of new billionaires and an ocean of unemployed. Republican economic policies just do not work.

[f252863]

05:21 AM on 06/10/2010

Check out the recession of 1920, the government did absolutely nothing. It was over very quickly and then we had a huge boom.

You can't control economies through state intervention, thanks to Obama this recession is not only much longer than usual but he is setting us up for the next one by spending recklessly. See all the new taxes? That will drag us down for sure.

The Republicans are hardly better, they spend almost as much. Why? Because if you don't the voters throw you out. It is all about buying the electorate.

The only viable economic policy is the free market, anything else is a distorted political economy.

[realpolitic]

08:08 AM on 06/10/2010

All the economists say the stimulus worked!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/business/economy/17leonhardt.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/023981.php

[scipio2009]

06:13 AM on 06/11/2010

Are you honestly trying to create an image that end of World War 1 had absolutely nothing to do with the deflationary recession ending so quickly? Or Harding's Unemployment Conference? Seriously.

And that came from a minute and a quick search to wikipedia. imagine how foolish someone could make you look if they took 10 minutes to fact check your nonsense. lol

[KriTiKiT]

02:23 AM on 06/10/2010

toss in a single payer system and you just might get some compromise with a public option

[f252863]

05:22 AM on 06/10/2010

Like Canada which is now going broke on the back of their unsustainable health care system?

[RFAstill]

07:29 AM on 06/10/2010

with hr3961 now gone, it makes it easier.... now convince everyone to accept the CMS's pay schedule...