Cobra is no more? Or people can't afford to pick up the payments?

This situation points to the need of a radical overhaul of health care provision - people need access to CARE, rather than to insurance. I devoutly hope we're on our way to a single-payer system.

Count on the Republicans to oppose any kind of health care that doesn't enrich insurance companies.

Last line, second paragraph should be "Now, we have the pre-uninsured," not the pre-insured.

"Cobra is no more?"
Cobra is EXPENSIVE.

Denying coverage for pre-existing conditions is the very essence of what's f*cked-up about health insurance in the U.S.
That and having to beg, plead, and hire a lawyer to get insurance to pay what they are supposed to have covered.

jayackroyd, read the story. COBRA is only available if your previous group coverage still exists. In situations like the one described in the story, where the entire company goes kaput, COBRA is not an option.

COBRA is aptly named - The head can turn and strike - When, COBRA was created, one, normally, did not have to wait long to become reemployed. With the loss of so many jobs, many, using the very expensive system, often, either stop it or, should they miss one payment, lose it.

And, one other point - After losing it, if you have to go into the ER, make sure, you have no home or real property in your name - In the event, you can not pay the much higher fees for non-insured visits to the ER, your property will be liened and, possibly, foreclosed - But, as Harriet and Hubby said in '93, we do have the "most wonderful health care in the world", eh?

Yes, COBRA did not apply to Archway, but even if it had, COBRA is a stopgap measure in this increasingly unemployed society. Paying for COBRA is also a major problem; I suspect few workers budget prospective COBRA payments into their monthly expenses.

Not mentioned in Steve's discussion is the fact that the women who induced labor so her baby would be covered was denied that coverage.

1. COBRA is expensive. My closest friend paid between 1100 and 1400 a month (prices went up) for coverage (friend and ex and kid) under COBRA. I know because I've seen the bills. I don't have thirty-five grand in spare change loose under the sofa cushions -- do you? That's sort of expensive when your job has just gone bye-bye.

2. It sounds as though COBRA vanishes if the beloved former employer stops offering a group health insurance plan, just like your "employee" coverage would if you happened to still be employed. It ain't there no more. Do you understand what "gone" means? You have no health insurance -- although if you were paying under COBRA you spent tens of thousands of dollars a year for it. None at all. Poof, allgone!

3. COBRA is good for 18 months. You'd better have found another job with benefits by then, because from month 19 on you are naked.

That would be a lousy time to get sick, bunkie. And "don't get sick" is what your health coverage plan just turned into.

Lastly -- did no one else feel ... offended is the nice term, I guess ... by Cohn's far-removed-observer tone of voice? Oh, gee, that's not an efficient [he seems to actually mean "effective"] way to deliver health care -- but oh, well, when was it ever?

Don't ever get sick, Jonathan Cohn, and hang onto that no-skin-off-mine third-person-couldn't-care-less journalistic viewpoint. It'd be a shame -- for your reporting -- if you were to lose that objectivity.

Maigod.

As has been mentioned, COBRA (though it doesn't apply to the Archway workers) is expensive. It comes to something like 107% of the previous total premium shared between the employer and worker. So if you were paying, say $300 a month for coverage and your employer was paying $600 for you (not unusual), the new COBRA premium would be $963 a month for just you, Mr. or Mrs. Newly Out of Work. Good luck.

Meaningful reform now, please.

There is only one possible answer. A National health care system, modeled after those in the Scandinavian countries (they are the best and more effective.) It's WAY PAST TIME to take the profit motive out of health care. I predicted back in 1976 (when the HMO's, etc. were really gearing up) that the eventuality would be nationalized medicine. I thought it would take about 30 years for it finally to be accepted. Nearly my entire career has been in, or related to, the health care industry, and one thing I know: COMPETITION doesn't work. It only results in higher costs and worse care.

Employee health insurance is an [evil ;-)] New Deal era liberal solution. Time for it to end and get to some rationale health insurance solution.

SINGLE PAYER.

COBRA is your current insurance program, same insurance company, same benefits. The difference is the employee is saddled with the entire cost of the insurance. COBRA recipients are denied more because the employer no longer in the equation.

The Great American Health Care system, ensuring the "have nots" subsidize the "haves".

If a company is canceling their insurance, COBRA will not be available because the plan has been dissolved.
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"in the hope that her Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan would pay for the delivery"

Good luck with that one. Insurance is rarely caught off guard and the fact that this lady, who's name is now in the NYT, had a voluntary procedure in order to get it covered by insurance, is a pretty damn good reason to deny the claim.

This is pre-meditated murder. The insurers use this information deliberately to deny selling insurance policies.

I took advantage of the Change.org ideas website to present a comprehensive healthcare reform proposal which is built upon the adoption of HR676 and which provides for primary/preventive/public health care for everyone which is accessible, affordable and appropriate. If you would be so kind as to critique it (I can still edit and modify it) and support it with your vote, I'd be most appreciative.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/primarypreventivepublic_universal_healthcare_reform

In fact, the insurance company refused to pay for the woman's delivery, and she now owes the hospital 17,000 bucks.
COBRA is ridiculous. Let me agree with all those writing above who have pointed out that it is confiscatorily expensive, even for people with solid middle-class incomes who have jobs (I used it to cover one of my kids for 18 months). On unemployment? It would usually be your whole check and then some for family coverage.

jayackroyd, let me buy you a clue, my treat.

Through no fault of my own, I'm taking whatever job that comes along and I pay COBRA. I am healthy but know full well, if I stub my toe, I will be facing a medical bill that will PERMANENTLY render 90% (guess) of us homeless. It was a tough call to pay into this program as there is still the co-pays, pharmacy and everything else they can scam you for. I would still fight to the death to avoid going for medical attention (a providers wet dream for sure). Soon now I will be disappeared from this "confiscatorily expensive" program (love that term!) through attrition. Want some irony? The middlemen you make COBRA payments to will also deny you. That's right, I said middlemen and I've been taking names. Factor that into your efficency calculations.

Still confused? We can chat more about it on the bread line.

I posted to soon.

More irony.

Kaiser Permanente (an HMO) in their best effort to pull themselves up by the bootstraps has unleashed PR with their "Thrive" hype. How cheerful and rosy. Check it out: http://www.kp.org/ Good luck with that.

If it took some 30 years for this COBRA system to run its course, will the next solution actually make it better? Better minds need to be brought to bear.

This is, unfortunately, going to become a more and more common story as businesses go under. If there's no insurance plan, there's no COBRA, so you have no way at all to continue your health insurance under a group plan.

Good luck finding a private insurer willing to pick up the cost of your delivery when you're already 8 months pregnant.

Employee health insurance is an [evil ;-)] New Deal era liberal solution. -- Lance, @10:56

My understanding of the origins of employer-provided healthcare benefits is that it's a post-WWII invention and totally private, not govt spurred. That, after WWII, there was a shortage of workers and health bennies were one way of wooing them.

Otherwise, I agree with you. Single payer, definitely. *And*, NOT FOR PROFIT.

My COBRA was $500/month, just for me. That's about what I should be paying in rent. My COBRA ran out a few months ago, and I can't get anything cheaper than $500/mo due to pre-existing conditions.

Employer-based health care is evil, absolutely. No conservative should be allowed to argue for the current system using words like "freedom" without being shot in the face.