When people who purchase insurance on their own become unemployed, they are three times as likely to remain insured than those who were insured through their employers, even with COBRA. But COBRA is expensive and entails a big jump in premiums, so just 19 percent of unemployed people had purchased coverage that way. John Hood comments today on the coming end of federal subsidies to make COBRA more affordable. Those subsidies doubled the percentage of unemployed taking up the continuation of coverage benefit as they cut the cost to individuals by 65 percent.
Recent research goes further still, and finds that the benefits from individually-based insurance more than offset any cost savings from getting insurance in a group plan.
Individual policies provide more choice, more security, and cost less for the unemployed without raising cost to taxpayers. Why do Republicans and Democrats alike want to build on the current employer-based system?
cross posted at StateHouseCall.org
