Providing health benefits

With the subsidy, the average cost of health benefits for a Nevada family drops to $363 a month.

Federal law allows people who have been laid off to continue with their previous employersÕ health insurance benefits for 18 months. The law, commonly known as COBRA, has helped millions of people keep health insurance, but it comes at a steep price. To receive the benefits, the people have to pay the full cost of the premiums and possibly administrative costs.

As the Las Vegas SunÕs Lisa Mascaro reported last week, a Nevada family would pay $1,038 a month on average to continue health insurance benefits after a layoff. The high cost has made health care unaffordable to millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the recession. Families USA, a health care advocacy group, estimates that a laid-off worker in Nevada would spend 75Êpercent of his average monthly unemployment check just to cover health insurance.

In the Recovery Act passed this year, Congress provided laid-off workers with subsidies for nine months to help pay for their insurance. With the subsidy, the average cost for a Nevada family drops to $363 a month, according to Families USA. That is a great benefit, but unless Congress acts, it will be short lived. The program will stop taking participants after this month.

ÒThis is a benefit thatÕs very important,Ó said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. ÒIt has been a lifeline. That lifeline is now being withdrawn.Ó

Congress is considering extending the subsidies for another year, which it should. The economy has continued to struggle and the unemployment rate has increased, leaving millions of people out of work. And the first group of people who received the subsidies will see them end in the next month.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated his support, as have NevadaÕs other Democratic members of Congress. We would hope their Republican colleagues would join them — soon — to extend the subsidies.