COBRA extension moves forward - in defense appropriations bill

Modern Healthcare: "The Senate is expected to vote on a fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill by this weekend that would extend a health insurance subsidy for laid-off workers through February 2010. The House has approved the subsidy extension for the COBRA program, which was tucked into the $636.3 billion Defense appropriations bill." The subsidy was was only available for nine months, until Dec. 31. "That meant that the unemployed who started receiving the subsidy in March saw it lapse on Dec. 1. ... The same bill includes a short-term delay to the impending cuts to Medicare physician reimbursement." A full Senate vote on the measure is likely Saturday (Vesely, 12/17).

Kaiser Health News: "A proposal to extend the health insurance subsidies for Americans who have lost jobs as a result of the recession is one step closer to gaining congressional approval. The proposal, which passed the House Wednesday night, is tacked onto both the House defense appropriations and jobs-creation bills and would give some unemployed Americans an extra six months of help paying for their COBRA coverage." Under the subsidy program, first created in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, "[t]he federal government has been paying 65 percent of the costs [of COBRA coverage] for Americans laid off between September 2008 and the end of 2009."

"The Defense bill, which has the best chance for speedy passage, would extend the sign-up deadline until the end of February. The Jobs bill, which will likely work its way through Congress early next year, would extend it until the end of June 2010. Both would lengthen the nine-month subsidy to 15 months and would be retroactive for those who already timed out" (Gold, 12/17).

The New York Times reports that "[t]he Senate voted early Friday morning to force final action on [the defense bill] as Democrats broke a Republican attempt to use the military money to stall action on the health care overhaul. In an unusual dead-of-night session that opened just after midnight, senators voted 63 to 33 to shut off debate on the $626 billion plan, which is the last spending measure due to pass this year and was easily passed by the House earlier this week. A final vote is expected early Saturday" (Hulse, 12/18).

NPR reports on the issue by profiling a laid-off worker who will lose her COBRA subsidy Dec. 31 if Congress does not pass an extension to the program. "62-year-old Ann Hess of Atlanta, who lost her job at a mergers and acquisition firm, says she feels vulnerable and "angry that I worked so hard all my life to wind up where I am. My life used to be going out with friends, you know, buying nice Christmas presents for family. All that's gone now because I can't afford to do any of that. Health insurance has a lot to do with it" (Silberner, 12/17).