Senate Dems Push To Reinstate COBRA After GOP Block

Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced legislation Tuesday to reinstate the healthcare subsidies for fired workers that expired a month ago.

"Extending the COBRA health care premium assistance has widespread support in the Senate," Casey said in a statement. "Like unemployment insurance and aid for the states, this measure to help laid off workers pay for health insurance is being blocked. I will continue to look at all options to get this vital legislation passed."

The bill is the same as the amendment he introduced to the extenders bill, the legislation to reauthorize expired domestic aid programs. Given the roadblocks the extenders bill has encountered from Republicans, Casey spokesman Larry Smar said, Casey and Brown decided to introduced the amendment as a freestanding bill.

The Casey-Brown legislation would extend the program through Nov. 30 at an estimated cost of $8 billion. Without the COBRA extension, a report from the National Employment Law Projects predicts as many as 150,000 Americans each month will lose out on the subsidies necessary to afford quality health care.

The bill's legislative prospects remain unclear. "There is extreme resistance among Senate Republicans (and some others) to passing legislation to help people who have lost their jobs," Smar told HuffPost in an email exchange. "Even the UI extension by itself couldn't get enough votes in the House today."

Cosponsors include Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.) and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).

Comments

[Charlie1124]

08:54 AM on 07/01/2010

Thank you Bob Casey!! Democratic Senators: Please keep up the fight.

[Rosanneofpgh]

09:56 AM on 07/01/2010

Senator Casey seems to have been flying under the radar (havent heard much about him before this) but Im happy to see him lead the fight for extending COBRA. Keep up the good work, Senator, and we Pennsylvanians will continue to vote for you!

Wave bye, bye to Arlen for me. He and santorum p!ssed off the voters of Pennsylvanis once too often. See where they wound up??!! An example for you of what NOT to do.

[RuffnRowdy]

10:38 PM on 06/30/2010

This is how Republicans stoke the race to the bottom.... They turn the middle class against one another. Business and especially big business during a recession know how to pare their operating costs to optimize profits. The end result is those who are still working may find themselves working harder and longer which is measured as higher productivity in the workplace. Most people who find themselves in that position arent getting paid much more and more then likely arent proud of being a 'higher productive employee'
Right now big business's are sitting on the highest historical cash reserves never seen before. The longer they can hold out.. the lower they can drive down wages and benefits. They know once they do start to invest and start hiring...the cash flow increases and starts demand for product. Its a delicate balancing act in which the middle class has always born the brunt of it all.

[loggerboots]

10:11 PM on 06/30/2010

After spending 33 weeks of severance,and being unemployed,now for close to 2 yrs,a friend of mine wishes now that maybe he should have taken that smaller paying job,60 miles from Milwaukee while still on severance.Too small of a town he says,What would i do out there?Or moved to another state when his company offered to relocate him.What would I do out there?Cut them off already............................................Not being a dickJust being real. By the way,he is single...........

[260Parkway]

09:34 AM on 07/01/2010

That's an exception and not the rule for the people that are unemployed. Your friend isn't a very smart man and now you know why he's single. What single woman in her right mind would be willing to hitch her wagon to a horse that is going nowhere?

He's blown two opportunities.........

[GloriaY]

09:53 PM on 06/30/2010

zombi you just don't know what you are talking about. Simply because your parents are lazy and shamelessly collected unemployment benefits without making an effort to look for work does not say that EVERYONE is doing the same thing. You are putting everyone in the same compartment as your lazy parents. And for your information I OWN a business and HIRE employees. By the way,I am proud to say that none of my family is in need of a place to stay or is unemployed as we are ALL legitimate business owners. And cut the you people crap out.

[rocco0607]

09:49 PM on 06/30/2010

I guess all you TRUE AMERICAN SOCIALISTS don't want to admit that there are 14 democrat congressmen voting NO as well..The same ones also voted no on the unemployment extension...They just want to see how it is going to be paid for but shucks you socialists don't care about that any more than you do about the constitution now do ya?

[pathofhumanity]

09:53 PM on 06/30/2010

Paying for the wars?? Are we???

[ghostrider57]

09:42 PM on 06/30/2010

I have a brilliant idea. Lets take this bill & the bill to extend unemployment and attach them to some military spending bill or make it part of the war budget. Everyone of these politicians will be tripping over themselves to pass it.

[lolablev]

09:54 PM on 06/30/2010

Now this is a GREAT idea!

[CubanVoice]

09:38 PM on 06/30/2010

Republican blockade of healthcare will never cease unless one of them goes to the hospital, like Cheney did this past week, and is treated like everyone else.

[Demeralda]

09:38 PM on 06/30/2010

Sherrod Brown, I love you. Seriously. I mean it.

[KathyinCT]

08:56 PM on 06/30/2010

Why help people get coverage for health care???

Under the GOP policy of not INVESTING IN AMERICANS, let people go without care until the get really sick, show up in the Emergency Dept and it costs thousands to treat them.

Penny wise, GOP foolish.

[peowlemeow]

08:43 PM on 06/30/2010

And universal health care was complicated why ?

[GloriaY]

08:12 PM on 06/30/2010

As I said before, republicans hate America and Americans. Thought that they were all drunk with power, but we now know what makes them not only drunk but inhuman...... too much alcohol comsumption. They are a sorry lot and a disgrace to the offices they hold. Thanks to the stupidity and poor judgement of repugs Americans are still the laughing stock of the world. Would not want them to represent my dog.

[rocco0607]

10:04 PM on 06/30/2010

spoken like a true hater...Perhaps you would like to check your history and see just what the Democrats ARE responsible for and what they have and haven't done...I do relize that you democrats(I am being nice when I put you moderatly on the left) are the party of DOUBLE STANDARDS but let me ask you this...JUST HOW IS THIS GUY AND HIS ADMINISTRATION WORKING OUT FOR YA? just wai you haven't see it all yet....

[GloriaY]

10:27 PM on 06/30/2010

spoken like a true Republican/Tea Party flag bearer.

[Exfl]

12:01 AM on 07/01/2010

Not perfect, but a whole lot better than Bush. That's how.

[Witkacy]

09:04 AM on 07/01/2010

You left out greed...These people are so deeply tied to the industries relevant to the legislation which comes before them (insurance; defense; energy; corporate farms, etc.) that they're practically contractors (or "of counsel") to them.

[samsonjax]

08:08 PM on 06/30/2010

tHEY'RE voting ON unemp ext right now ON c-span!!!!!!!!!

[DFL]

07:32 PM on 06/30/2010

Remember this in the fall elections americans, dems are for the people and republicans are for big insurance and big oil, this fall stay the course! the only ones that need replacing this fall is the blue-dog democrats, replace them with "real" democrats!

[Sneakers1]

07:36 PM on 06/30/2010

Hear, hear!

[markm8128]

09:38 PM on 06/30/2010

Get involved earlier in the year....before the primaries....if you want to get rid of Blue Dogs.

Now it is...go all the way...with every Democrat. Lets beat the GOP!!!

[Sneakers1]

07:28 PM on 06/30/2010

As a Canadian citizen living in the US, I find it completely deplorable that the Rethugs & Blue Dogs have the power to deny the unemployed access to Cobra by discontinuing the government subsidy, which probably in all cases is the only avenue that the unemployed can obtain reasonable healthcare.

I find it astonishing that America is the only civilized country that refuses to care for its own people, and would rather spend American tax dollars on illegal, useless wars and rebuilding other countries, and even providing to aid to countries that in turn provide universal healthcare to all its citizens (ie., Israel, Mexico, etc.).

What are the poor, unemployed supposed to do w/out access to healthcare? As a country, do we just discard the unemployed – like plastic junk in the hope that they will succumb to some illness, resulting in lower unemployment rates?

Alan Grayson nailed it w/the GOP’s healthcare plan.

End these illegal wars now & America might have some $ to save its own people.

[wa-st-concerned]

09:05 PM on 06/30/2010

In total agreement!

[johnb123]

07:24 PM on 06/30/2010

If unemployment makes people lazy, then surely pork, perks and lobbyist make politicians corrupt. Lets end the corruption.

[KathyinCT]

08:53 PM on 06/30/2010

BRILLIANT.

Fanned and faved!