health insurance news

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.

Daily Finance – A few months ago, one of my patients approached me with a dilemma. She had been laid off from her job, but had let her employer-sponsored health insurance lapse without signing up for COBRA, which allows terminated employees to pay to continue their health insurance coverage with their previous employer for up to 18 months. She didn’t qualify for government-sponsored insurance because she had a small family savings account. And she was unable to get an individual policy because at that moment she had what insurers classify a “pre-existing condition”: She was pregnant.

Los Angeles Times – Workers laid off by California’s smallest businesses have a shot at subsidized healthcare under a bill moving quickly through the Legislature.

The Miami Herald – The federal stimulus package will pay 65 percent of the cost of COBRA health insurance for those being laid off, but it’s unclear how big a difference that will make to people in South Florida who’ve lost their jobs.

Wilkes-Barre News – The financial worries that accompany the loss of a job during a recession are many. Debra Waszkiewicz of Wilkes-Barre lost her job last May and does not qualify for the new COBRA coverage plan change for the unemployed.