The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) supports workers, who have lost the right to their health benefits, so that they can keep their employer-sponsored group health plan in force. The need for continued insurance coverage is necessary when coverage is interrupted due to the loss of a job, reduced working hours, death of the insured employee, divorce or even other circumstances that affect a person’s life. A person who qualifies for the group health benefit is usually expected to pay for that premium. The employer may increase the premium up to 102 percent, which is allowed under the provisions of COBRA. The law applies to all employer-sponsored group plans who have 20 and above employees and urges them to ensure an extension of the health coverage that is temporary (Magill, 2009).
COBRA was passed in 1986 and provides guidelines for continuous health coverage in case of sudden loss of a job or even death among other situations that cannot be avoided. Employees as well as employers have to participate in the program to make it effective. The employees are guided by the “Employee Benefits Security Administration” and the “Employee Retirement Income Security Act” to fill out forms of compliance. The law was designed to find temporary solutions for continued medical insurance so that the unemployed can still enjoy and access healthcare facilities despite the financial misfortunes that may render them unable to support themselves as well as their families as they find a permanent solution (Magill, 2009).
The “COBRA” organization is supported by the “Department of Health and Human Services”. The information below illustrates how the scheme works.
Qualified Beneficiary Qualifying Event Coverage Period
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...r the condition to be covered, or be charged extraordinary sums for premiums. The employee must not go without coverage for more than 63 days to avoid the pre-existing condition clauses in a policy. In reality, the government should make Medicaid benefits available to the newly unemployed or low-wage earners due to their now “low-income” status. The reality is that even if the government did make Medicaid benefits available, the state of the economy has caused many states to reduce Medicaid benefits for budgetary reasons.
Works Cited
Magill, N. (2009, January 12). Caught between Unemployment Benefits and Health Care Costs. Retrieved January 18, 2012, from familiesusa: http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/cobra- 2009.pdf
McMillan, E. J. (2008). Model policies and procedures for not-for-profit organizations. United States: John Wiley and Sons.
...rofiles of Health Care Systems, The Commonwealth Fund, June 2010. Retrieved April 20th, 2011 from website: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2010/Jun/1417_Squires_Intl_Profiles_622.pdf
Our Preamble lists five main goals that are required to help create a strong and stable society within our country. However, money is required in order to achieve these goals. We get this money from the Federal Budget which is the yearly amount we receive in order to better our country. The question here is, are we slicing the pie correctly in relation to the federal budget? In each of three budget clusters, the U.S Government should make adjustments in the way it is distributing money by making changes involving the Big Five, the Middle Five, and the Little Guys.
The central portion addresses the portability and continuity of care and the prevention of fraud and protection of privacy. Group health plans may not deny any individual coverage because of preexisting medical condition for more than 12 to 18 months after an individual’s enrollment date. Title I allows individuals to reduce the exclusion period by the amount of coverage time before enrolling without breaks in coverage for over 62 days. Also, Title I provides special enrollment rights to individuals who lose their health coverage under certain while circumstances such as separation, divorce, death, loss of employment and reduction in hours. (http://hipaa.ohio.gov/whitepapers/title1healthcareaccess.PDF)
Federal spending is necessary for the economy and is essential to the accomplishment of national goals and advancement. This is why a budget is needed, however, there is no actual process mentioned in the Constitution that explains how Congress should do this. The Constitution states:
In a time of dire need there is always at least a sliver of hope that remains, a light that never goes out despite the darkness around. If this is the case, for a time such as the Great Depression than what was that “sliver of hope” or that “light in the darkness”, so to speak? Although President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s other efforts are much appreciated, the “light” of the Great Depression is, hands down, the Works Progress Administration. Why? The Great Depression was a time of despair and unfortunate events for all citizens of the United States; left and right, the homeless and the jobless were seen forlornly sauntering the streets seeking jobs that could and would not be found. It is in this instance that the Works Progress Administration takes the stage, created by President Franklin Roosevelt, the WPA’s sole reason of existence was to employ the jobless by funding public works projects. With these projects the unemployed were given jobs and projects were carried out such as the photography projects of the Farm Security Administration. Among the most famous photographers of these projects are Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee.
Out of all the industrialized countries in the world, the United States is the only one that doesn’t have a universal health care plan (Yamin 1157). The current health care system in the United States relies on employer-sponsored insurance programs or purchase of individual insurance plans. Employer-sponsored coverage has dropped from roughly 80 percent in 1982 to a little over 60 percent in 2006 (Kinney 809). The government does provide...
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law by President Obama on February 21, 2009. The law had three major goals which were all aimed at stimulating a sluggish US economy. The first goal was to create new jobs and save existing ones by tax credits for hiring new employees. The second goal was to spur economic activity and investment in long term growth by increasing the amount of business asset that could be acquired by companies while allowing for immediate deductions for the cost of the assets as well as numerous tax credits for individuals and businesses. The third goal was to foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending by requiring recipients of recovery act funds to post acknowledgements on the Recovery.gov website.
Before Obamacare was passed, millions of Americans were uninsured, suffered and died prematurely each year since lack of health insurance. Insurance companies could deny any one for pre-existing illnesses or drop them when they get sick, or stop treating them when they touched annual or life-time perimeters. Over 60% of bankruptcies were associated to medical expenses, several of these people had insurance. Insurance companies had no limits on raising premiums. Preventative measures and wellness visits were not covered adequately (Mowrey, 2013).
Then came the question, should the employer be the one responsible for providing health insurance. While everyone on the panel could agree that our health care system in 2008 was broken, most seemed opposed to the alternative solution of universal healthcare. There is an incentive to the company to offer health insurance to a human being that may receive the opportunity to receive health insurance from another company. However, taking health insurance responsibility away from the employer and making it the government’s responsibility would increase availability and possibly eliminate freedom of
Barton, P.L. (2010). Understanding the U.S. health services system. (4th ed). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
Millions of Americans are without health insurance in the United States due to many factors such as unemployment, the cost of insurance and insurance companies denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The United States does not provide health care to its citizens the way the rest of the industrialized world does. Instead of providing coverage for all it institutes market-based options, in which some receive coverage from their place of employment, another options are purchasing individual plans and some can obtain coverage through public programs like Medicaid. The United States is the only westernized industrial nation without a universal health care system.
The law was designed to provide health insurance to all uninsured Americans. The law requires all businesses to provide health insurance to all employees and for all uninsured Americans to seek health insurance (Thomma). The proposed law was supposed to lower premiums by $2500. The percentage of workers that enrolled in high premium health plans more than doubled when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law (Reed).
The purpose of ACA implementation is because many people are uninsured due of various reasons, some of the reasons are financial hardship, pre-existing conditions, and work status. The most effective solution to these issues was to formulate
The expense of human services rose 87 percent somewhere around 2000 and 2006, while swelling just rose 18percent (Clemmitt, 2007). Workers with protection are confronted with high deductibles, high premiums, and expanded out-of-pocket installments. This implies having protection does not as a matter of course empower a man to get medicinal consideration, for the patient should even now have the capacity to manage the cost of the treatment. Representatives with no protection can't bear the cost of medicinal consideration at all or are ineligible because of previous conditions. Some of these individuals apply for government help (Medicaid), yet are turned down because of the diminished subsidizing of Medicaid projects (Chua, 2006). The always expanding expenses are making managers slice out or lessen advantages to workers. This is bringing on social insurance to end up a developing issue for the working class, since wages are expanding a great deal more gradually than the cost of protection premiums (Clemmitt, 2006). Working Americans are losing manager supported scope and don't have the monetary method for acquiring private scope (Chua, 2006). Representatives who don't lose scope through and through are frequently compelled to pay a higher rate of their protection, or are prevented fetched from claiming living compensation increments since the cash the organization takes into
Health insurance facilitates entry into the health care system. Uninsured people are less likely to receive medical care and more likely to have poor health. Many Americans are foregoing medical care because they cannot afford it, or are struggling to pay their medical bills. “Adults in the US are more likely to go without health care due to cost” (Schoen, Osborn, Squires, Doty, & Pierson, 2010) Many of the currently uninsured or underinsured are forced accept inferior plans with large out-of-pocket costs, or are not be able to afford coverage offered by private health insurers. This lack of adequate coverage makes it difficult for people to get the health care they need and can have a particularly serious impact on a person's health and stability.