Labor & Employment Law

UI and Health Care Clocks Tick for Jobless Workers, Congress Must Act

By Mike Hall

Time is rapidly running out for Congress to keep a vital lifeline available for jobless workers and their families. Both unemployment insurance (UI) for the long-term jobless and the COBRA extension to help unemployed workers maintain health care coverage expire Feb. 28.

With long-term unemployment continuing to worsen (and now at an all-time high, with one in six workers unemployed) and periods of unemployment lasting longer than ever, keeping the unemployment safety net is crucial for millions of working families.

Click here to tell your lawmakers it’s time to act.

In December, the U.S. House passed a jobs bill that included a long-term UI and Cobra extension, but the U.S. Senate failed to act and Congress was forced to pass a short-term extension of both programs.

The AFL-CIO’s five-point jobs program says a one-year extension is essential and the Obama administration supports a long-term extension. However, it is unclear what shape a Senate jobs bill will take. Republican leaders say they will oppose any jobs legislation on a scale large enough most economists say will do real good.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a group of 31 senators urged quick passage of an extension for both programs to provide “vital safety net coverage for America families.”

Recent employment numbers are an indication that we must immediately extend jobless benefits and health assistance for individuals and families squeezed in this tighter economy. Nearly 40 percent of the unemployed?more than 6.1 million people?have been out of work for six months or longer.

The Cobra subsidy covers 65 percent of the premium cost, but as the senators point out, the average monthly health care premium for families is $1,111, about 83.4 percent of the average unemployment check.

In some states, the average unemployment check is less than the cost of a monthly health care plan premium.

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP):

The cost of not reauthorizing these important unemployment provisions will be substantial?in the form of increased foreclosures, less money flowing through communities, and reliance on other public benefits?and will slow down the economic recovery that will bring us jobs.

Take action now, click here tell lawmakers to extend UI beneits and Cobra for a year.

Also join the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) drive to move the Senate to action on a jobs bill, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 03, 2010 (boomark / email).