December 1st, 2009

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

At a time when the unemployment rate tops 10 percent, many unemployed Americans will no longer qualify for federally subsidized health insurance.

That’s because a nine-month health-insurance subsidy that was part of the federal stimulus legislation began to end yesterday for many who have relied on it. As many as seven million people were eligible for the subsidy in 2009, according to government statistics.

People who have not used up their nine-month subsidy will be able to finish it. But no one laid off after the end of the year will be able to start using the subsidy. Portions of the stimulus legislation dealing with the insurance coverage end Dec. 31.

“Anybody who loses his or her job is also likely to lose health coverage,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a health-care consumer organization.

The situation worries people such as administrative manager Rob Wigmore of Devon, who was laid off in May.

“As soon as I lost my job,” Wigmore said, “making sure that my family and I had health insurance was my primary consideration.”

Wigmore was able to purchase health insurance through his former employer in a program known as COBRA (more on how it got that name later).

Ordinarily, such coverage costs former employees 102 percent of the cost of the premium. Wigmore would have had to pay $1,388.31 a month to cover himself, his wife, and his son.

The U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law Feb. 17, included a provision that the government would pick up 65 percent of the COBRA tab.

“I pay $485.91 a month,” Wigmore said. “It’s the most important check I write a month, besides my mortgage.”

Find out more at the Inquirer.