Many to go without insurance as COBRA premiums skyrocket

Last Update: 12/01/2009 6:27 pm

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WICHITA, Kansas – Millions more Americans are faced with going without health insurance now as COBRA premiums are skyrocketing. COBRA insurance allows an employee to continue receiving benefits from their company after they leave, but the costs have now likely become too high for countless Americans.

Mark Lunsford, his wife and two sons spend their days looking for work. No jobs means no insurance. Lunsford, who recently lost his job, tried get COBRA coverage, but when he saw the amount he knew it wouldn’t be possible.

"Too expensive -- $345 a month from the company that laid me off and without a job, you can't pay it,” he said.

Believe it or not, $345 now sounds like a bargain. According to a study released Tuesday by Families USA, a national health care consumer organization, the average COBRA premium for many families has jumped from $389 to just more than $1,000. That means COBRA costs would eat up 84 percent of an average unemployment check.

"Poor man is getting poorer,” Lunsford said.

In Kansas, the average COBRA cost increase mirrors the national numbers. Why the dramatic jump across the nation? As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed earlier this year, the government started paying as much as 65 percent of COBRA costs for those eligible. But now the first people to receive their subsidies have seen them run out.

"We believe that this will affect several million people right away, and will continue to affect additional people as the months go by,” said Ron Pollack with Families USA.

And that will leave an untold number of folks likely in the same boat as Mark Lunsford and his family with no insurance and a lot of anxiety.

"I worry about it every day,” Lunsford said. “My wife last year had a heart attack; I got to worry about that. I had a stroke five years ago. Without insurance, it's just medical bills you can't pay.”

There is talk about legislation that would extend the subsidies for COBRA coverage, but no timeline has been set.

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