Insurance Commissioner Sponsors Measure To Expand COBRA Coverage
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner (R) said his department is sponsoring a bill to expand and extend health care coverage for some laid off workers, San Francisco Business Times reports.
The bill (AB 23) would allow employees laid off from some California businesses to apply for federal funding to extend their health coverage under the Cal-COBRA plan.
The measure -- written by Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) and Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) -- would allow workers laid off between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009, to qualify for a 65% subsidy of Cal-COBRA premiums for up to nine months.
It also would allow those who had rejected or stopped their Cal-COBRA coverage to set it up again with the new subsidy.
A related bill (SB 796) is under consideration in the state Senate (Brown, San Francisco Business Times, 3/24).
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