On April 15, 2010, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (HR 4851).  Under the provisions of the Act, the 65 percent federal COBRA premium subsidy is extended to qualifying individuals who are involuntarily terminated between April 1, 2010 and May 31, 2010 inclusive.  Thus, the subsidy is again available for up to 15 months to these newly-qualifying employees.

Still pending in Congress is HR 4213, which would extend the federal COBRA subsidy program to all who are involuntarily terminated through 2010.

There are now three separate bills pending in Congress to expand both the amount of time COBRA continuation coverage may be available as well as to extend the previous COBRA premium subsidy under ARRA.

In the Senate, S. 2730 would extend the COBRA premium subsidy by 6 months, to June 30, 2010 (a total of 15 months) for those who became eligible on or after March 1, 2009.  It would also extend the eligibility date to June 30, 2010 (from December 31, 2009), and increase the subsidy amount from 65% to 75%.  Lastly, it would also expand eligibility for the subsidy to those who lose health coverage as a result of an involuntary reduction in hours.

In the House, there are two bills that have been introduced.  HR 3930 would extend COBRA continuation coverage for involuntarily terminated (or reduction of hours) individuals between April 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009 to 24 months from 18 months.  It also adds 6 months to the eligibility and assistance periods of subsidy.  The second House bill, HR 3966, would extend the subsidy program for involuntary terminations and loss of coverage through June 30, 2010.

Pay close attention to these three bills.  At this point, given national unemployment above 10%, it is highly likely that some form of these measures will be approved still this year.

The lobbying group American Health Insurance Plans commissioned a study earlier this year by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to determine the cost impact of various health care proposals ultimately to be paid by employers and participants of insured plans.  Their study stated that “the overall impact of these provisions will be to increase the cost of private insurance coverage for individuals, families, and businesses above what these costs would be in the absence of reform.”

However, despite what some in the media and on Capitol Hill have (over)stated, the PWC study only examined four elements of the health care reforms currently being considered in the Senate and House, and ignored many other elements of reform that would reduce health care costs long-term, such as electronic public exchanges and administrative simplification (for example, one common claim form for all providers).  In fact, the study even says that “”the reform packages under consideration have other provisions that we have not included in this analysis,” yet claim overall cost increases that ignore these savings.

Health care reform is a complex and difficult business without misinformation masquerading as a complete analysis.