COBRA Control Services, LLC

With less than two weeks left in the year, the U.S. Senate on Saturday passed legislation that extends until the end of February eligibility deadlines for some key unemployment benefits.

That’s especially important in Michigan, which continues to have the nation’s highest unemployment rate – 14.7% in November.

Attached to the $636-billion defense spending bill passed on an 88-10 vote by the Senate on Saturday morning, the unemployment extensions now go to President Barack Obama for his signature, which is expected to come quickly.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said the unemployment extensions and other measures provide help at a time when Michiganders “are struggling to put food on the table, pay heating bills, and afford the health care they need.”

“While recovery from this recession and the creation of jobs cannot come quickly enough, I am relieved Congress was able to pass these important measures to soften the blow of unemployment,” added Michigan’s senior U.S. senator, Carl Levin.

The legislation makes some key changes to programs which were set to expire. For instance:
•The congressional stimulus bill passed in February created a program that paid 65% of monthly insurance premiums for people who lost their employer-based health care coverage because they were laid off. But that program was only open to people who lost their jobs – and their coverage – by the end of 2009. The new bill extends that eligibility deadline by two months, until the end of February 2010.
•It also adds six months to what was a 9-month period that the federal government would make the 65% of payments through the COBRA health plan, extending the period of payments to 15 months.
•The legislation also extends the deadline to qualify for additional unemployment benefits. Last month, Congress passed legislation adding 14 more weeks of emergency benefits – and six more on top of that for people in hard-hit states like Michigan. But they were only available to people exhausting all their other unemployment benefits by the end of December. The new bill extends that deadline to the end of February.
•It also maintains 2009 federal poverty guidelines – which if reset could have moved some people off food stamps and Medicaid – and adds additional funding to the food stamp program.
•Finally, the legislation authorizes the Small Business Association to continue programs to make loans more attractive to borrowers and lenders, in order to free up credit for businesses.