COBRA Subsidies Coming to an End Soon?

COBRA, if you are unaware, is the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which was created in 1986, and is a government run health insurance plan for people who have recently lost their jobs. COBRA is a pretty expensive health care coverage plan, but that changed back in 2009 when Congress passed a stimulus bill that subsidized sixty-five percent of the costs of COBRA, making it much more affordable for nearly everyone who needed it. Sadly, that subsidy might be ending soon.

In an article entitled, “Time Runs Short For COBRA Insurance Help,” NPR discusses how a new bill doesn’t include yet another extension for the COBRA subsidy, possibly ending it and making health insurance that much less accessible to people who have a hard time affording it in the first place. While it’s been offered as an amendment, few think it’ll pass, putting COBRA out of reach of many who can only now afford it thanks to the subsidies.

This means that, very likely, the number of uninsured in our country will go up, which kind of flies in the face of the recent health care legislation’s passage. One hopes this can be resolved so that people who need it can have access to COBRA, but if this subsidy isn’t approved, then a lot of people will sadly lose their health care.