Health Care Reform and COBRA

COBRA insurance has been a great stopgap measure for all employees enrolled in the temporary insurance program. This is a last resort when an employee finds himself or herself in a position of being fired or laid off. In most cases, the COBRA health insurance, which is offered through the current employer, is a relatively small deduction out of every paycheck while the employee remains employed.

Since the passing of the health care reform, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there are going to be a few changes to how the COBRA temporary insurance will function for the laid off employee in the future. Many of the employees of today are wondering what changes to the COBRA insurance there will be and when they will take affect.

Those individuals who are currently paying into the not so affordable health insurance plan as a backup for when they are laid off from their current place of employment will still have the advantage for a period of time after they are no longer at their current employ. The COBRA temporary insurance coverage, unlike in the past years, will afford the laid off employee the privilege of maintaining their current insurance.

Of course, when the laid off employee lacks the necessary funds then they will no longer be able to afford the individual health insurance coverage. In any event, the main rule that has changed is that the COBRA insurance coverage is now limited to only eighteen months.

With very little prospect of being able to afford a low cost health insurance policy when the individual passes the eighteen month margin, life is going to become difficult. This may work well with younger individuals, but with the larger portion of the population aging, this is going to be a central issue. There will be very few avenues any unemployed individual can journey down for any type of insurance. Whom will they turn to when they become ill or need the assistance of a medical health care physician?

This is what will cause many individuals to become walk-ins at the local community hospital emergency room. This also is playing a role in the over crowding that is currently occurring in our local community hospitals across the country. Of course, this will become worse as universal health care becomes the law of the land. Many of the medical health physicians have already stopped working and left the country to practice medicine in foreign lands. How many more medical health physicians will be considering leaving has yet to come to the surface?