Thread by @taragolshan

Something worth highlighting in this Covid-19 relief *law*: It subsidizes COBRA premiums at 100%

If you lose your job/have reduced hrs and lose your employer-sponsored health insurance, the federal government will cover your premiums fully through Sept!

huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…

Some context: COBRA is a federal program that lets you keep the insurance plan your former job offered after you've left, as long as you pay all the costs out of pocket.

It's supposed to make sure there's no coverage lapse but that's prohibitively expensive for a lot of folks.

Now, the federal government, at least temporarily, is picking up the tab.

Democrats first proposed COBRA subsidies last year. There are fair criticisms from the left: Why should the fed gov spend $$ subsidizing private insurers when they could just enroll people into public programs?

That's a larger debate. But for emergency relief this is huge.

.@ella_nilsen had the first story on this proposal back in the early days of the Covidian era.

vox.com/2020/4/14/2121…

And here is @ninaturner making that argument I laid out above.

Going forward I'm sure progressives will be asking, if the government is fine paying for people's health insurance through private insurers, why isn't it okay to do so with public programs?

https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1370104874663297026?s=20