American Rescue Plan: Free healthcare for the unemployed
Last month, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan, a historic package of federal relief from the covid pandemic.
Let’s talk about some of what’s in that package and how it will help people, starting with free COBRA healthcare coverage for uninsured people and dependents of the recently deceased.
COBRA is an existing federal law that requires your employer to allow you to keep the health insurance you got through them for up to 18 months after you leave the company. The catch is, you have to pay up to 102% of the premiums—the company no longer subsidizes it like they did when you were an employee.
COBRA also applies to dependents of deceased employees. If you die, your dependents get to stay on your employer-provided health plan for up to 18 months. The same catch applies: They’ll have to pay up to 102% of the premiums.
It should be obvious that paying hundreds of dollars in premiums per month is untenable for people who’ve just lost an income. This was already true, and is even more true in an ongoing pandemic in which many employers have closed outright or furloughed employees.
When health insurance isn’t affordable, people go without it. But the “don’t get sick” health plan comes with a steep deductible. Getting hospitalized, whether due to covid or something else, is a fast track to financial ruin.
The American Rescue Plan makes COBRA continuation coverage free from April through September. People who are unemployed, or dependents of someone who’s deceased, can remain insured for free for those six months.
This obviously doesn’t solve all the problems with our healthcare system. Plenty of people still can’t afford their healthcare coverage, and six months will go by quickly.
But right now, this is a huge help to people who are relying on COBRA coverage to have any coverage at all.
And this is but one of the ways #HelpIsHere thanks to the American Rescue Plan. We thank our Democratic Members of Congress for passing it and Pres. Biden for signing it.