Cutting through the legalese, what does that mean?
It means that if you qualify for COBRA, the government’s going to pick up 65% of your bill. 65% is a typical employer’s share of the premium payment for current employees, so it likely means that if you’re laid off your medical bills won’t go up much. Forget politics, and forget whether this is prudent in the long term for America. That’s another post. What this provides is a huge opportunity, and one worth considering seriously. I’ve suddenly been told that I can keep my health insurance, which covers the great majority of my medical expenses, for a reasonable amount (about $400 per month) instead of an unreasonable amount ($1400). The unintended social effect of this may be profound: people like me who might have been otherwise inclined to scurry as fast as we could back to corporate employment for the sake of health care benefits may instead opt into independent contractor status in the short term. I have to admit that I was anxious to get a “job” with benefits as quickly as I could
