COBRA health insurance Health Insurance News

The Hill – As House Democrats worked to scale back a package of tax and jobless benefits, they slashed a provision that would have extended COBRA eligibility for the workers laid off by their employers. The cut is expected to prevent 144,000 families from receiving COBRA benefits. Read more about COBRA health insurance.

MartketWatch – Just a few months after passing comprehensive health reform, U.S. lawmakers appear willing to risk a short-term backslide in the push to reduce the number of uninsured Americans until the overhaul’s major provisions take effect in 2014.

Daily Times – Health-care premiums for millions of unemployed Americans could triple with the expiration of government subsidies to the COBRA program.

Read more about COBRA health insurance coverage.

The Seattle Times – Despite recent job gains, one grim statistic casts a long shadow over the recovering economy and the futures of more than 6 million workers: Fully 44 percent of the nation’s 15 million unemployed have been out of work for more than six months.

National Public Radio – To reconcile or not to reconcile – when it comes to a health overhaul bill, that seems to be the biggest argument of the moment. At issue is a process called budget reconciliation. By writing Obama’s health care plan as a budget bill, Democrats can prevent a Republican filibuster in the Senate and advance the bill with a simple majority instead of the 60-vote supermajority they no longer have.

Business Insurance – Federal COBRA health insurance premium subsidies would be extended and expanded under a draft jobs bill being put together by top Senate Democrats.

Business Insurance – Federal COBRA health insurance premium subsidies provided to involuntarily terminated employees would be extended again, the Obama administration proposed Monday.

Millions of unemployed Californians now have another problem on their hands in addition to looking for new jobs. The federal subsidies that cover 65 percent of the cost of a laid-off worker’s health insurance premium for a period of nine months, are starting to expire.

Los Angeles Times – Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs, thanks to the looming expiration of a government subsidy, Kathy M. Kristof reports.

Sacramento Bee – When Paul Carroll lost his job in January, he and his wife, Kate, had a difficult, expensive choice: Do they keep their health insurance through his former employer, even though it would mean bearing the full cost of the coverage?