Affordable Health Insurance 2010
Concerned about how you’ll provide affordable health insurance for your family in 2010? If you are among those thousands of unemployed workers who get their coverage through COBRA, you will continue to receive affordable health insurance in 2010 because Congress has extended COBRA subsidy for involuntarily displaced workers. Under the legislation:
- Individuals who are eligible for the subsidy will be able to receive it for an additional six months, for a total of 15 months.
- Workers laid off between Sept. 1, 2008, and Feb. 28, 2010, are eligible for the subsidy. The original cutoff was Dec. 31, 2009.
The defense bill requires employers to give current and future COBRA beneficiaries notice of the extensions. Employers also are responsible for fronting the subsidized 65% of insurance costs and can recover that amount as a credit against their federal employment taxes.
Because the nine month period has already expired for some individuals, the law grants such individuals a grace period to pay past due premiums without losing coverage or to receive a credit if they had paid the full premium amount after they lost the original subsidy. If your COBRA subsidy hasn’t expired, you don’t have to do anything. You’ll probably receive a notice from your plan explaining the six-month extension.
Group health insurance through COBRA is available to former employees for up to 18 months total. COBRA allows many workers and their families to continue receiving affordable health insurance coverage that had been provided through their former employer. However, the worker is responsible for paying up to 102 percent of the total cost of the health insurance, much of which may have been paid for by the employer.
The COBRA subsidy is provided in the form of a payroll tax credit to employers with 20 or more workers. The bill requires employers to notify current and future COBRA participants of the extended 15-month eligibility. Mini-COBRA is provided for workers of companies with fewer than 20 employees.
