December 21st, 2009

Reports the Times Herald:

An extension of health care coverage for the unemployed, known as COBRA, passed the U.S. House and now moves to the Senate.

Congress passed the landmark Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, health benefit provisions in 1986 to provide continuation of group health coverage after someone loses a job.

Congressman Joe Sestak, D-7th Dist., introduced the legislation to extend COBRA coverage that was inserted into a jobs bill.

“We submitted a bill in October and worked it hard,” Sestak said. “The bill’s language is actually what we proposed.”

The Jobs for Main Street Act will replace cuts to state aid, as well as highway, transit and school infrastructure projects, he said.

The jobs legislation would extend by six months, from nine months to 15 months, the total time an unemployed worker can receive 65 percent COBRA premium assistance.

“On Dec. 1, they already started pushing people out of the (COBRA) program,” Sestak said. If the Senate fails to pass the bill, the assistance would run out Dec. 31.

The bill would allow workers who enrolled in February, when the assistance was initially provided in the economic stimulus bill, to continue on until at least May 2010.

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