On Prepared Patient Forum, AHCJ Immediate Past President Trudy Lieberman examined the fallout of the Friday House vote to toss a proposed extension of COBRA subsidies through the end of the year. The Senate has yet to vote on the extension, which Lieberman says would cost about $8 billion.
The up-to-65-percent subsidy had already been extended four times since it first passes in 2009. Lieberman says that without this latest extension all the unemployed Americans who have been relying on COBRA will be forced to wade into what she called the “insurance market jungle” to get quotes on the unsubsidized market. Lieberman even did a bit of bushwhacking of her own, wading into the online insurance market to see just what consumers are up against.
