February 11
Hope For Unemployed
Not only will Obama’s stimulus package provide assistance to state budgets and publicly funded programs, but it will offer an important degree of assistance to individuals who have found themselves unemployed in the current economic situation. For those who have been laid off, they stand to lose not only their job but their health insurance as well. COBRA has long been an available alternative to those who have lost their employee sponsored coverage, but the high price tag of the program often leaves people with no alternative but to go without. However, this may change if the stimulus package is approved, as it will temporarily lower the cost of the program and perhaps place it in reach of many more unemployed citizens. Do you think making COBRA affordable for the unemployed will help decrease the number of uninsured citizens as well as provided relief to overstrained public health insurance programs such as Medicaid which are seeing their highest enrollment rates in decades?