Durbin, Duckworth ask COBRA funds for jobless
Durbin leads 17 Dem senators in letter calling for health-care relief similar to Great Recession
Some 22 million U.S. workers have lost their jobs and potentially their health insurance over the last four weeks. (Shutterstock)
By Ted Cox
The state’s two U.S. senators joined in calling for the next coronavirus relief package to include subsidies for workers who’ve lost their jobs and their employer-based health insurance.
Dick Durbin led 17 Senate colleagues, including Tammy Duckworth, in submitting a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer of New York laying out the need for idled workers to get help retaining their health coverage. Durbin publicized the letter in a news release issued Friday.
The letter states up front that “additional legislation will be necessary to improve the public health and America’s ailing economy. To that end, we strongly urge you to ensure that any forthcoming COVID-19 package include robust federal subsidies so that individuals can maintain their employer-sponsored health coverage when they lose their jobs.”
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday that another 5.2 million workers filed for unemployment last week across the nation, 141,000 of those in Illinois. That made 22 million people — or an estimated 1-in-7 U.S. workers — who’ve lost their jobs over the last four weeks in an unprecedented economic collapse caused by the coronavirus crisis and the lockdown attempting to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The letter points out that “over half of Americans receive their health coverage through their employer,” and of those who have recently lost their jobs due to COVID-19 “it is estimated that more than 6 million of these individuals have also lost their employer-sponsored health care. Depending on the extent of unemployment, between 23 to 35 million workers could lose their coverage.”
COBRA is a program allowing laid-off workers to retain their health insurance, but the senators emphasize that individuals then have to pay the full cost of it, without the company contributions that were chipped in while they were employed. The letter cites an average of $1,700 a month for a family plan, “which is often unaffordable for those newly unemployed.” It adds that “Congress must step in and assist these individuals and families.”
It should be pointed out that job loss is a qualifying event allowing idled workers to enroll in a program under the Affordable Care Act marketplace, as at the Get Covered Illinois website, but again that would be paying the full cost of coverage, unlikely to gain much if any reduction in the cost of COBRA.
The senators’ letter cites that, during the Great Recession of a decade ago, Congress passed subsidies granting 65 percent of COBRA payments to those who lost their jobs. Yet they point out that even 35 percent of the cost was too much for some of the unemployed to retain their coverage.
The importance of retaining health insurance in the midst of a pandemic, especially for workers with families, shouldn’t have to be emphasized.
“We have heard from our constituents, as we know you have too,” the letter concludes. “They are in dire economic circumstances. Despite government relief — in the form of extending monthly bill deadlines and increasing unemployment insurance — it will not be enough for most Americans to continue affording the health-insurance policy they and their families elected through their employer’s plan.
“We believe Congress must craft a bill that provides a robust federal COBRA premium subsidy for individuals who would otherwise lose their employer-sponsored coverage as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The letter was signed by Durbin and Duckworth and their Democratic Senate colleagues Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Tom Carper of Delaware, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Doug Jones of Alabama, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Dianne Feinstein of California, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.