It’s bad enough when employees lose their jobs. It’s even worse when it affects their health insurance.
It’s bad enough when employees lose their jobs. It’s even worse when it affects their health insurance.
According to a report, Squeezed! Caught between unemployment benefits and health care, released Friday, most unemployed people are unable to maintain their health insurance because it is too expensive under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA as it more widely known as.
The 1985 federal mandate calls for employers to allow former workers continued coverage for up to 18 months after they have separated from the company. The requirement is for companies with 20 or more employees and that offer group plans, such as medical.
The financial burden of COBRA comes, however, when the former employee has to pick up 100 percent of the health care premium, where the employer was subsidizing a portion of it. The premium for COBRA insurance could be as much as $1,000 per month.
The report was issued by Families USA, a New York-based health care consumer organization, and focuses on how expensive health premiums are through COBRA–generally too expensive for most people.
The study revealed that to have medical insurance through COBRA, unemployed workers would have to, in some cases, pay more for the premiums than they receive in unemployment benefits.
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