Study: COBRA consumes three-fourths of average unemployment benefits in Missouri
From News-Leader
Laid-off workers in the Ozarks are also likely to lose their health coverage for lack of an affordable alternative.
Family health premiums for COBRA, a program intended to provide safety-net coverage for unemployed workers, consume three-fourths of average unemployment benefits in Missouri, according to a new study by Families USA.
In nine states COBRA premiums cost more than 100 percent of unemployment benefits, the study shows.
The report by the consumer health organization focuses on the unaffordability of COBRA coverage – which allows laid-off workers to retain their employer-sponsored insurance if those laid-off workers pay the full cost of that coverage.
According to the report, on average nationally, unemployment insurance benefits are $1,278 while COBRA monthly premiums for family coverage are $1,069 — or 83.6 percent of Unemployment Insurance benefits.
In Missouri and 40 other states and the District of Columbia, COBRA family coverage premiums, on average, consume more than three-fourths of average unemployment insurance benefits.
COBRA premiums for single coverage of workers consume, on average, more than one-third of unemployment insurance income.
“COBRA health coverage is great in theory and lousy in reality,” said Ron Pollack, Families USA’s executive director. “For the vast majority of workers who are laid off, they and their families are likely to join the ranks of the uninsured.”
“The right to COBRA health coverage is a tragic ruse for millions of families whose breadwinner was laid off,” Pollack said. “Unemployed workers need either premium subsidies to help them afford COBRA benefits or temporary health safety-net coverage through Medicaid.”
The report’s data about states’ Unemployment Insurance benefits were obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor.