The other day I was talking with a friend about my retirement, and he asked what I was going to do about health insurance. COBRA is so expensive. Fortunately for me, I go to the VA, so cost isn't an issue, but it irritates me so when I hear comments like that, because it reminds me of so many issues with US health care, and how lousy the health care system is in the US.
First I want to point out, it isn't COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) that is so expensive, it's health insurance that is so expensive! COBRA is simply the law that permits individuals to continue purchasing that same [expensive] health insurance coverage their employer had been purchasing for them, should they lose their job through early retirement, lay off, disability or other issue. The only difference being, now the employee is paying the cost instead of the employer.
Now to me, that sounds like a strange law. Why in the world would we need a law giving us the right to purchase health insurance through an employer we don't work for any more?
Well, it turns out, under the US health care system, health insurance provided by an employer doesn't belong to the individual/employee [even if they contribute to it]. It's the employers insurance policy. So before COBRA, if you had employer sponsored health insurance, and you lost or quit your job, trying to obtain health insurance on your own, not only was very expensive (no group policy rates), but many times down right impossible, most notably for those with preexisting conditions. It's like you never had health insurance before, so health insurers could simply deny continuing coverage to anyone.
COBRA eliminates that policy, but for only 18 months (there are certain extensions permitted, and some states extend that time), but COBRA is even more limited in its scope. COBRA only permits the purchase of insurance policies offered by your previous employer, so if that employer drops health insurance as a benefit, or goes bankrupt, then COBRA doesn't apply, and employees are left at the mercy of the [not so] benevolent health insurance companies.
The problem with all this, even with COBRA, is most people still can't afford to purchase health insurance on their own (even group policies offered by their previous employer), because it is so expensive. That keeps people in dead end jobs they hate, and even restricts movement and entrepreneurship, because people can't risk losing their health insurance. It's also the principle reason companies love the system, despite it being so expensive. It reduces turn over rates at companies, forcing workers to stay at jobs they hate, while allowing companies to increase employee workloads without fear of reprisal.
In short the US health care system is designed to eliminate our freedoms, and subjugating us to corporate America. It's no wonder Republicans and businesses are so against health care reform [and unions]. It begins to strip away the power corporations hold over our lives.
Just think about it!
Authors note: Although still far from perfect, it is fortunate COBRA became law in 1985, during the Reagan administration (obviously a Reagan "senior moment"). Today, I doubt it would ever pass. Republicans and the Tea Party would consider such a law an infringement on an employers right to fire sick individuals as a way of reducing their health insurance expenses.