Health4all : Unemployment Benefits for Alaskans Can't Cover COBRA Premiums

Health4all

Every year more Alaskan families lose health insurance and can't afford health care. Every year more families with health insurance cannot afford to use it because of expensive out-of-pocket charges. Every year more Alaskan elders with Medicare are refused treatment by local physicians. And every year health care in Alaska continues to cost 30 percent more than down south. These problems are a reflection of the crisis across the nation. Not surprisingly, the United States ranks last in preventable deaths compared to 14 Western European nations. We have a lot to talk about.

Lawrence D. Weiss retired from UAA in 2004 as a research professor in public health. He designed and built the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and has published three books and numerous articles on public health and health policy issues. He completed a post-doctoral degree at Harvard School of Public Health in 1982, and has been in Alaska ever since. His favorite expression is "facts matter." Occasionally he can be found in a local pub drinking beer and eating pizza while engaged in passionate conversation with friends.

Unemployment Benefits for Alaskans Can't Cover COBRA Premiums

Posted by health4all

Posted: January 23, 2009 - 12:00 pm

This month, Families USA has released a report detailing the plight of recently unemployed American workers trying to continue their health care coverage after losing their jobs. The report, "Squeezed: Caught Between Unemployment Benefits and Health Care Costs," shows that the COBRA program (from the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) designed to help workers continue seeing the same doctors and keep the same insurance coverage, while transitioning to new work, simply costs too much.

The numbers are escpecially grim for Alaskans. Among the key finding, research shows that a newly unemployed worker in the state would need to spend, on average, more than 49.2 percent of their unemployment insurance income on COBRA premiums. The average premium for family coverage under COBRA would equal 131.7 percent of their unemployment insurance income. The costs of COBRA premiums for Alaskans are some of the highest in the nation.

The alternative to COBRA and struggling to maintain employer-backed coverage is trying to find insurance in the unregulated private market--where laid-off American workers are unlikely to find a policy at any price given their pre-existing conditions. As the recession deepens, more and more families must face this growing health care crisis.

On January 9, 2009, the Department of Labor announced that the unemployment rate had risen to 7.2 percent in December 2008, bringing the total number of unemployed to slightly over 11.1 million. Research shows that for every percentage point increase in unemployment, the number of uninsured people increases 1.1. percent.

For the full report, visit the Families USA website: www.familiesusa.org. Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

posted by K.L., ACPP Project Coordinator