Health Insurance Prices May Dip
Your health is the most valuable asset you have. All your other assets depend upon and build from this basic asset of your life. If you have lost a job, maintaining your health insurance coverage becomes extremely important. If you are unlucky enough to become ill while uninsured, you will wish you had taken that health insurance cover.
COBRA is the most popular way to stay insured in the event of loss of job. This safety net lets you remain insured for up to 18 months after job loss. The premium and fees of COBRA amounts to about $500 per month for the average person. Now with the government subsidizing the health insurance costs up to 65 percent in the first 9 months of coverage people have a reason to cheer.
Some private programs are cheaper than COBRA, though they provide fewer benefits. Staying insured even after unemployment in essential and now this is easier.
Meanwhile, it seems 4 million Americans have lost their health insurance since the recession began. If all these went for COBRA, lets do some really rough mathematics around it. 4 mn * $500 = 2 bn will be spent on COBRA. If 65 percent is borne by the government, that makes it 1.3 bn. A small drop in the stimulus bucket.
