Roberts: Extend COBRA subsidy

Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts is urging Congress to extend a federal subsidy that helps the unemployed pay to get health insurance through their former employers.
The COBRA premium-assistance program, launched early this year, provided federal stimulus funds to cover 65 percent of health insurance premium costs for laid-off workers, with employers paying the money upfront and then taking the cost as a credit on their taxes.
The subsidy was only scheduled to last for nine months, however, and “a large number” of Rhode Islanders who signed up “will see the cost of their health insurance skyrocket” on Dec. 1 unless the federal subsidy is extended, Roberts said in a news release.
Without a subsidy, people who have lost their jobs can get COBRA coverage but must pay the full cost, including whatever share their employer used to cover. Roberts said her office is getting calls daily asking whether Congress will extend the program.
“People are afraid that they will have to drop coverage because it is simply unaffordable,” Roberts said. “In a state like Rhode Island, where unemployment rates continue to rise, extending the program past its nine-month window, as well as allowing newly unemployed to take advantage of the benefit after Jan. 1, is so important.”