The Worthless COBRA Coverage

As anybody who has been unemployed can tell you, COBRA coverage for 18 months after one loses his or her job is utterly worthless for all but the wealthiest workers because it is unaffordable. This latest report from Families U.S.A. simply states the obvious:

Nationally, to maintain single coverage, the average unemployed worker would need to spend 30 percent of his or her unemployment insurance (UI) check on COBRA premiums
(see Table 1).
�� In many states, the situation
is even worse:
�� To maintain coverage for
themselves, in six states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
West Virginia), newly unemployed workers would need to spend, on average, more
than 40 percent of their UI income on COBRA premiums (see Table 2).
�� In an additional 11 states (Delaware, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska,
New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin) plus
the District of Columbia, newly unemployed workers would need to spend, on average,
more than one-third of their UI income on COBRA premiums (see Table 2).
�� Maintaining family coverage under COBRA is an economic impossibility for most newly
unemployed workers. Nationally, unemployed workers would need to spend nearly 84
percent of their UI income, on average, to pay for premiums for family coverage (see
Table 1).
�� In nine states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi,
South Carolina, and West Virginia), the average premiums for family coverage under
COBRA equal or exceed total UI income (see Table 3).
�� In an additional 32 states (Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) plus the District of Columbia, premiums
for family coverage under COBRA would consume, on average, more than threefourths
of the average UI income (see Table 3).

But our Congress and executive branch care only about the wealthiest people, not working people, and that's why the stupid COBRA law was put in there. For those who have never been on it, COBRA allows workers to keep the health insurance plans they had when they were employed but must pay ALL of the company's premiums, which run hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month.