Congress is in recess, and – as was expected – the bill that would have extended COBRA was allowed to lapse.  As of June 1st, the federal government will no longer subsidize COBRA premiums.  What does this mean to you, as a health insurance consumer? Read on to learn more.

What is COBRA Coverage?

COBRA is a form of protection for individuals who become unemployed and have their health insurance benefits taken away as a result. It was first introduced in 1986, under the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act passed during the Reagan administration. Since then, millions of unemployed workers have had the opportunity to retain the coverage that was provided to them by their former employer.

In 2008, when the economy took a nosedive, millions of people became unemployed (the best estimates show that a record 10 million are collecting unemployment insurance and half of the 15.3 milion jobless Americans have been unemployed six months or longer). The newly elected Obama administration stepped up to the plate and added government subsidies to help cover the cost of COBRA through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Under the ARRA, COBRA was provided at a 65% discount to the unemployed. What this meant was that a typical COBRA plan (which would have cost a family in California $1,107 a month and 82% of their unemployment check) would have cost only 35% of the actual cost of the plan – or about $390 for a family. The subsidy finally made COBRA affordable for most American families.

What’s Changed about COBRA Subsidy?

As of June 1, 2010, anyone who becomes unemployed will no longer receive subsidized COBRA coverage. This means that you will need to pay the full premium for coverage, which could total more than 3/4th of your unemployment check! Unfortunately, Congress is in a fiscally conservative mood, so you won’t be able to take advantage of any more federal subsidies.

However, the good news is that there are essentially dozens of alternative health insurance options within your reach. The thing most consumers may not realize is that COBRA is priced as group coverage – and it often includes coverage that you may not need as a family. You can take advantage of drastically lower rates simply by opting for a private health insurance alternative. All you have to do is click here to request a free quote!

Doctors are regular people, just like the rest of us. They put their pants on one leg at a time, and they go through the same thought processes that we all do. They have good and bad days, and sometimes, they wish they could just open their mouths and let their patients know what they really think about health, lifestyle choices and your incessant whining. Reader’s Digest compiled a comprehensive, telling and hilarious list of quotes from the likes of general practitioners, surgeons, shrinks, pediatricians, and other specialists, and their honesty and bluntness is refreshing. You may see your patient self reflected in some of the following accounts, but don’t feel bad. Now you know what your doctor is probably thinking and you can use what follows as a tool to create a better doctor/patient relationship.

Doctors Say: Impatience is Our Virtue

Although a doctor is supposed to be endlessly patient, listening as we prattle on about our list of suspected ailments, what they are doing inside is mentally tapping their foot and rolling their eyes. Some secrets doctors around the country shared:

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Have you ever pondered what health insurance and healthcare was like throughout your state? Or maybe you and your family are planning a move to another part of the country and want to know what you can expect in terms of health coverage in a state. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is making sleuthing like this a whole lot easier for inquiring minds who want to know. They have created a stellar resource website at statecoverage.org, where you can find statistics for all 50 states. Want to compare the coverage provided by employers in Wisconsin versus the coverage provided by employers around the country? Are you curious about the Medicaid coverage in Oregon?

What Makes this Health Insurance Tool Useful

I’m so impressed with this site’s usability and easy of navigation. I’ve always wanted to live in Oregon, as I have a on of family living there and let’s face it: it’s absolutely beautiful there. But let’s say I wanted to truly make a move there and was worried about what type of health coverage would be available me. Once I open the “State Profiles” page, I’m presented with a map of the United States, broken out into states. I clicked on Oregon, and up popped information that can be useful to everyone, despite how you like your information presented. On the Oregon page, I discovered both graphical representation of data (read: bar graphs) and some cold hard numbers.

If you’re looking at a particular state’s data and wondering just where in the heck these statistics came from, the site does a terrific job of citing their sources. Just click on the “Resources” tab for any given state, and you will see listed any source that data was gathered from, including a link to the exact report. For those of you cynics who don’t like to take things at face value, I think this is valuable addition.

Muddling Through the Insurance Jargon

If you’re at the beginning of your insurance journey, you may be looking at terms like Medicaid or SCHIP and scratching your head. Luckily, State Coverage Initiatives has done all of the information gathering for you. Instead of only providing you with facts and figures with no explanation of terms (leaving you opening countless different windows trying to track down what these terms mean), you can click on “Coverage Strategies” at the top of the page and be given in depth definitions of many of the types of coverage you’ll see talked about on other parts of the site. Also impressive is the readability of the definitions-no confusing, misleading trickery here-they lay everything out for you so that it is easy to understand and digest.

Insurance Resources Galore

One fantastic thing about the internet is that there is a wealth of information to be found on just about any subject. It can be difficult to find a reliable and informative site sometimes, and State Coverage Initiatives seems to be one of the good guys. Once you have gotten the specific state information you are looking for, you may be ready to look into purchasing some type of insurance for yourself. There are so many different plans out there, and they vary drastically by carrier and area, so please visit our health insurance by state section arm yourself with even more information to help you with any insurance decisions you’re facing.

President Obama made a lot of promises in his 2008 Presidential campaign, and many of them were around changes he wanted to see happen in America’s health care and insurance system. Unfortunately, many time politicians will talk the talk in order to get voters to punch their ticket a certain way on election day.

Walking the walk as far as campaign promises doesn’t always happen. Just look at the Bush administration…don’t even get me started. It is refreshing to hear Obama say that he is welcoming ideas on how to reform the health care proposal he created during his campaign, and I am all for a system in which many have a say in ideas to find a solution that works for everyone in the current state of the economy.

But the real question is, especially after hearing President Obama’s State of the Union address: What is the buzz around Obama’s statement of “come one, come all” for hearing opinions on health care, and will it work in creating a just and successful health care system for America?

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Living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is always something that should be a top priority. Your body is the only one you are going to get in this lifetime, and you should always be thinking about how to take the best care of it. Ladies, when you’re having to think about being healthy for two (and no we aren’t talking about fretting over your partner’s alarming disdain for vegetables), your health is more important than ever.

Your body is home to a tiny, dependent little being, and making sure you have the best of resources available to you should be your top priority. Your baby needs frequent and adequate checkups from the moment of conception, and this can quickly get expensive if you don’t have health insurance during pregnancy. But sometimes figuring out the best health insurance for you and your soon-to-be new addition isn’t simple and straightforward.

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Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part series on the controversy surrounding health insurance for same-sex marriage partners.  You can find part 1 here.

Let’s assume that the Defense of Marriage Act (DMA) eventually gets repealed. States that don’t support gay marriage aren’t allowed to deny that other states do? Would this then open up the forum for the Federal Government to acknowledge same-sex marriages? It seems that for Obama to agree with what this appeals court in California is bringing up, the Defense of Marriage Act would have to be repealed. We’re talking about health benefits for federal employees and their partners — and it seems that same-sex partners of federal employees won’t be seeing health benefits any time soon unless the DMA is axed.

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