Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA), a member of the House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee, introduced the Extended COBRA Continuation Protection Act (H.R. 3930) on October 26, 2009. The measure would amend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to extend the eligibility period and maximum period for COBRA premium assistance. Currently, eligibility for the nine-month subsidy is limited to individuals who have been involuntarily terminated from employment on or after September 1, 2008, through December 31, 2009 and who lose coverage during that period.
Specifically, H.R. 3930 would extend the ARRA COBRA subsidy eligibility to those who are involuntarily terminated between January 1 and June 30, 2010 and extend the maximum period of assistance to 15 months.
H.R. 3930 also includes a six-month extension of COBRA coverage. For individuals who are eligible for COBRA as a consequence of termination (or reduction in hours) of employment “occurring on or after April 1, 2008 and before January 1, 2010, if the maximum required period of COBRA continuation coverage is 18 months, such period is extended to 24 months.” The Council is seeking clarification of this legislative language, however, as the time frame for eligibility for this six month extension is inconsistent with timeframes that appear in the introduction to the bill and other section headings.
This measure could be included as part of comprehensive health care reform legislation, currently pending in both chambers of Congress or in legislation extending unemployment benefits and other expiring provisions of the stimulus legislation. H.R. 3200, the Affordable Health Care for America Act in the House already includes a provision extending the duration of COBRA coverage.
Filed under: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, COBRA, Economic Stimulus, Legislation, Regulations | Tagged: ARRA, COBRA, Extension
I would encourage passage of H.R.3930 to extend the Cobra subsidy. Not being able to find a job, paying full Cobra would be very difficult to pay out of unemployment benefits. This Cobra ARRA Extension has been a God send.
Thank you
COBRA ARRA HAS HELPED CONTINUE MY FAMILY’S LIFE BECAUSE WE COULD NOT AFFORD COBRA AT THE NORMAL RATE OF $1500/ MONTH WHILE BEING UNEMPLOYED OR EMPLOYED… PUTTING FAMILY’S IN A MORE PRECARIOUS SITUATION WHEN THEY ARE DOWN CAN CAUSE SOME DESPARATE DECISIONS. PLEASE CONTINUE COBRA ARRA FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS.
THANK YOU
I am in favor of any assistance possible to extend COBRA coverage and the assistance of the COBRA premium.
I have been unemployed since 9/11/2008 and still searching. I am unable to obtain traditional medical coverage due to pre-existing conditions and am not qualified to receive Medicare for another 3+ years. My UE is $1304/month. The premium without assistance is over $500 for an individual. After paying for COBRA, this does not leave enough to cover other living expenses – housing, utilities, groceries, medicine, and fuel for the auto.
Please help us.
Thank you.
I was given a severance package in April 2008, after that ended I filed for unemployment benefits in Oct 2008 and also requested cobra and subsidy assistance. I was informed by my employer and the DOL that since I “officially” was unemployed in April 2008 that I would not qualify for the subsidy, I’m still unemployed and have depleted my savings since I have to pay over $1,200 per month for cobra. Please consider expanding the subsidy to those, like me, who are still on cobra as well as extended the 18 month limit.
COBRA ARRA has allowed my family to afford and retain our COBRA insurance. At a time when our income was removed and has not been replaced we cannot possibly afford the $1400/month. We need this COBRA ARRA extension for an additional 6 months to pass.
THANK YOU
When will we know if this Extension Bill 3930 gets passed?
We need this Cobra rate reduction extension.
I was laid off due to downsizing 7/31/2009 and if it was not for COBRA ARRA, I really do not know how I would be able to afford health insurance. As an IT professional for 15 plus years, I have never been out of work and never had to face this dilemma. Jobs are not too plentiful and this recession is still very serious. My biggest concern is congress retracting this bill based on the false hope that our economy is getting better based on the ridiculous spending (mostly credit card I’m sure) people are doing during this Christmas season. Please understand we truly need H.R 3930 passed. Thank you.
Please god let this pass! i just found out that my insurance will go up to 508 a month on Feb1st and there is no way i can afford that. please please please let this pass!! i am so overwhelmed please let this pass.
It’s December and our COBRA ARRA has just run out. My family is now without coverage until we pay the full Cobra payment by the December 31st grace period due date. My husband’s salary was stretched just to make ends meet including making the Cobra ARRA payment. If we avoid some bills we can pay the full Cobra ($1500 dollars) THIS month. But not next. We have two small children and can not express how much the Cobra Arra has assisted us during this very difficult time. We join millions more when we say WE NEED THIS COBRA ARRA extension for an additional six months. Our only hope is the extension happens before we are forced to give up Cobra all together due to lack of funds. Once you give up Cobra you can’t go back on. If the extension comes too late we will be without healthcare for ????? how long????
Thank You
I have been unemployed since March 2009. Diligently and faithfully pursuing/seeking employment. COBRA ARRA has allowed me to continue insurance that I need to have. It is about to end. Please pass the COBRA ARRA extension for an additional 6 months…soon!
Thank you!
I was laid off in March 2009. Cobra has been a god-send. I have a 5 yr old daughter that needs this coverage, and I have high BP. Please extend this program for the health and wellbeing of my family.
Thank you.
My husband is getting laid off this month and it turns out that he WILL NOT be eligible for this subsidy as his COBRA coverage doesn’t start until 1/1/2010. Congress was really stupid and out of touch to make the terminated-by date and the eligible-for-COBRA date the same. Clueless bureaucrats who’ve never been laid off, otherwise they’d know that insurance coverage is almost always continued through the end of the month after termination. We were counting on being eligible for this subsidy and now we are going to have to figure out where to come up with an extra $600 per month after December 23rd. STUPID.
Please, please vote for the H. R. 3930 bill for the COBRA Stimulus Extension. I don’t know what my family can do for medical situations without it. I cannot possibly pay $890.00 per month for family health insurance with unemployment payments of $1,100.00 per month. I wouldn’t have money for gas to continue seeking employment. Thank you.
My husband and I were both laid off and are both now self-employed so we were so glad when the original COBRA Stimulus came out. When I got the notice that it was ending and going back up to full-price I was heart-broken. We have still not sent in our bill for this month because we don’t have the money in the bank to pay it.
Another extension would be such a lifesaver! I hope this passes FAST!
My name is Qiana Bankston. Unfortunately, due to economic reasons my employment with ProBuild Holdings, LLC located in Charlotte, NC will end December 18, 2009. Up until today, I was under the understanding that I would be eligible for the subsidized Cobra being that I will be involuntarily discharged prior to December 31, 2009. Today I learned that because my employer’s health coverage does not end until the 31st of December, I won’t be eligible for Cobra until January 1, 2010 which also means I am ineligible for the subsidy, the subsidy that I and my family desperately will need. I am writing this with hopes that someone will hear my situation and proceed with some actions to help me, my co-workers, and others in the same situation. I am asking you to please push to have the act extended.
There are so many who desperately need this.
Please extend the Cobra ARRA extension for all of us who are out of work and cannot find jobs. My husband and I would not be able to afford a full CObra payment of almost $1000.00 per month until one of us finds a job with insurance coverage. I urge you to please pass this extension
Thank you
I would encourage a COBRA extension, such as included in section 113 of the HR3692, the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, passed by the House in November.
This should be preserved in conference with the Senate.
It permits those who are on a federal COBRA extension of 18 months or State extension of COBRA beyond that to keep their guaranteed COBRA coverage and rates UNTIL the health exchanges are established.
The Sestak measure should NOT have a start date in the middle of 2008. Many of us LOST our jobs in early 2008 and remain unemployed during the worst recession since 1930.
Please extend ARRA subsidy. For me to pay full COBRA is impossible. My 9 months has ran out and cannot afford $600 a month for insurance.
Well its December 12th and I just received my letter from my employer that tells me I need to send them 983 for my husband and myself so obviously nothing has been done about extending the Cobra Subsidy. My husband works, but he pays for everything and my unemployment will run out in May and I payed for insurance and meds and food, but it takes 3 checks to pay for insurance, now. The ARRA was one of the best programs, please pass it soon.
COBRA ARRA has been a Godsend to me. I’ve been out of work since the end of May 2009. My COBRA payments will increase to the full amount as of March 13, 2010. While I hope and pray I will have a fulltime job with benefits by that time, I have no resources to pay the full COBRA amount should that not be the case. I am barely able to pay for doctor visits and maintenance meds and labwork as it is. WE NEED HEALTHCARE REFORM NOW, INCLUDING THE 6 MONTH EXTENSION OF ARRA COBRA BENEFITS TO PASS.
THANK YOU
I lost my job on 10/01/2008 and promptly took out the COBRA insurance, since my wife has multiple health problems. I was able to avail myself of the subsidy as well. I could not find work, and still can’t so I started a business. Without COBRA, with or without the subsidy, I would not be able to make it.
We need the COBRA insurance to be extended until reaching Medicare age. We are both 61. When COBRA ends for us, we will not be able, or afford it, to get insurance, as my wife is “uninsurable”. What do we do when COBRA runs out. We need help out here!!!!!!!
i currently have aetna/hills physican cobra medical only through my previous employer.without the stimulus extension i wont be able to afford my insurance.my issue is a pre-existing condition,which i’am under treatment until march .
COBRA ARRA has been a blessing to my family. I have been unemplyed since January 2009 after working for the same employer for 20 years. The full COBRA premium would have been approximately $1,600.00 a month for my family. That is more than my monthly unemployment benefits. I am still seeking gainful employment and still in need of affordable health insurance that will cover my family. Passage of H.R. 3930 will allow families in my situation additional time to seek employment that will provide healthcare coverage. It is a necessity. Please pass this extension. Thank you.
AS ONE OF THE MILLIONS WHO ARE PAYING THE HIGH COST OF COBRA PREMIUMS….IT CAN’T BE PASSED SOON ENOUGH. WE NEED IT ASAP….I AM SINGLE AND THE PAYMENTS ARE OVER $500 A MONTH….PLEASE HELP US TO GET OVER THIS HURDLE AND PASS THE BILL TO ENSURE WE CAN GET RELIEF. I WAS ELIGIBLE FOR THE 9 MONTH EXTENSION, BUT THAT HAS RUN OUT & NOW THE FULL COBRA PREMIUMS HAVE KICKED IN AND I HAD TO PAY IT OR GO W/O INSURANCE. AN 18-24 MONTH EXTENSION WOULD GREATLY HELP US UNEMPLOYED GET BACK ON OUR FEET. THANK YOU.
I am not in favor when an employee was terminated for theft and they qualify, which happened at our agency.
It’s great to see people freely expressing their opinion.Thanks for your insights.
I pray for this extension as well as true Healthcare reform. I have a child with type 2 diabetes and we need both.
Is there a chance that the Cobra coverage could be extended from 18 mo. to 24 mo. as was proposed in the Bill?
It certainly would be a God send at this time.
There is no indication that an extension from 18 to 24 months will occur.
Who pickd 9/1/2008 as the start of the subsidy??!
I’m happy for everyone else but there’s no relief for me. The economy starting souring before 9/1/2008. My company cut back and my company involuntary terminated me in June 2008 so I am not eligible. I was required to pay the full 102% of the premium and I had a high deductable plan.
At 900+/month for the insurance and the 5K high deductable I wound up paying 17,000+/year just to maintain coverage lest any of my kids, my spouse or myself get seriously sick.
Where’s my benefit? So the insurance companies make a mint and I go deeper and deeper into debt!!
So now I owe credit card companies with their insane interest rates and now the monthly payments are to a point that I can’t afford to pay them!
Why September 1, 2008?!
I had no choice but to go on COBRA do due this to current health conditions. Two months short of eligibility and I’m screwed!
I was able to transition to another group plan recently as the only qualidying event that I could get into this plan with was my birthday or the termination of COBRA. 18 months to get away from almost 1000+ without losing continuous coverage but now I”m still paying almost the same amount.
Where’s my stimulus! Why is 9/1 considered the start of this! The economy was starting to sour long before 9/1/08. Being left behind/out due to a timing issue is unsettling to me.
How about Congress putting in a law to benefit those who hit even before 9/1/2008. I’m 100% excluded right now so anything would help! My family could have used that 600-700 a month to keep regular food on the table and keep other things in check.
Where’s my stimulus?!
If congress wanted to truly be fair then update the plan to have a graduated scale that builds up to the 9/1/2008 65% subsidy. I don’t know the indicaters used for the subsidy start date but 60 days has cost my family thousands we didn’t have. More importantly, it’s cost them to learn that it’s all or nothing when it comes to help of this type.
I hold no ill feeling to those who are eligible but being on the outside looking in to this “gift” and to miss out on the benefit by what I consider a “hair” has been unsettling.
Who knows what the answer can be. Currently it’s “Too Bad!” but I know my family, my kids would enjoy it if I could take that 600-700+ in subsidie’s I couldn’t receive, that I had to borrow a month and send it to the damn CC companies that we are now indebted to. It may even save them the embarassement of having bankruptcy as a childhood experience.
My problems are my own and my lack of being able to secure a job is my problem but to miss this by a hair wihout having so much as a dime or a crumb is just unnerving on a daily basis!
I have been on COBRA for15 months. My time will be up in 3 months unless……it has been extended. I am having trouble finding any information about the extension of COBRA. Has a bill been passed and how much more time will I have? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !
Please extend the cobra without it we are dead
Please extend the COBRA Eligibility Subsidy (65%/35%) past the current cut-off date of May 31, 2010. I just lost my job after 13+ years at the same organization on June 7, 2010.
I need this subsidy as do thousands of others who were involuntarily terminated. I need the stimulus please.
Please extend the Cobra subsidy again. It’s not fair to people, who through no fault of their own, were laid off after June 1, 2010. I was laid off February 28 so I made it by the grace of God. Shouldn’t everyone have the same chance? I think so.
We all may as well resign ourswlves to the fact that the government is not going to extend cobra. Why should they when January 1st they’ll be selling health insurance of their own. Why should they ley people buy insurance somewhere else since they will be selling it. My wife spent hours on the phone to find out what the plan is about. Her and mine premiums will be approx 1100 a month. The deductible will be 2500. After that there is coinsurance of 30% to us. No cap! To some it up for people who don’t ubderstand it. You will pay 100% of doctors visits, prescriptions, test, emrgency room, and any surgerys until you have paid 2500 dollars. You will then pay 30% of everything after that. So forinstance if you went to the emergency room Jamuary 1st for a kidney stone attack and they ended up keeping you there and operating on you and dimessed you four days later. If the bill was 30,000 dollars which is quite possible you would pay the first 2500 plus 30% of the remaining 27,500 for a total out of pocket of 10,750! Plus of course your monthly premium of 1100.00. Without congress passing the cobra extension I believe their will be sharp increase in bankrupcy filings due to medical bills.