For anyone wondering when the recently passed stimulus package (ARRA) will take effect, let me announce that my wife and I were recently stimulated in the form of an offset and subsidy to our COBRA payments.
We've been on COBRA since November when I was laid off. We are paying >$800 a month to keep our crappy health plan. It turns out ARRA provides a tax refund for what we've already paid and starting next month will cut our payment by 65% through a subsidy.
But, I hear you crying, how is that stimulus?!!??
Well, in our case it will not be very stimulative since mrs. hoipolloi and I are adopting a radical cost cutting strategy a.k.a. we're walking across the country.
However, the subsidy will be stimulative for the vast majority of those eligible. For many it will be the difference between keeping or losing health coverage which may be indirectly stimulative in itself. The subsidy will be directly stimulative for most COBRA recipients who are by definition recently laid off and will therefore be spending their subsidies on living expenses, etc. while they look for work or drink their days away at the corner bar (which is stimulative in more ways than one).
So, let me say thank you to Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration. And a bigger thank you to the kind-hearted generosity of all you taxpayers out there. Cheers.
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BTW: If you're interested in our bad ass plan to walk off the recession check out this diary and/or our blog of the walk.