Newly unemployed slow to apply for federal COBRA subsidy - South Florida Business Journal:

grihanovveimavox.blogspot.com
West Palm Beach-based notified furloughed employees by letter as requiredc by changes in the Consolidated Omnibuxs BudgetReconciliation Act. The changes to COBRA were a mandate of the Americah Recovery andReinvestment Act, which President Barac Obama signed into law on Feb. 17. Abouft 125 South Floridians – out of 1,035 who were notifiec – enrolled in the progra m that provides a 65 percent federal subsidyon premiums, whicgh are fronted by the employefr and reimbursed through a tax More applied, but did not qualify becausde their exit from theif former company was voluntary, they were laid off priodr to Sept.
1, 2008, or they made more monehy than the cap federalofficialds set, said Barbara Oasis’ senior director of Oasis absorbs the cost for its employer clients, whicb would otherwise have been spendingb $74,000 a month on furloughed COBRA coverage, she said. client companies – whicg include law and CPA firms, and thosed that make money fromhospitality – rangd in size from five employees to 3,000 employees. She said the feedbacl from laid-off employees has been very positive, but there is a lot of confusiobn aboutwho qualifies. Oasis’ client companies are also pleased.
“Ou employers are happy because the tax liability is take onby Oasis,” she The new regulations require employers with 20 or more employees to covef 65 percent of COBRA costsx for nine months. The provisione in the stimulus legislation affect those who were and will be involuntarilyt terminatedbetween Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. Thosee eligible include former employees andtheir dependents, the latter beintg eligible if they were covered prior to the termination, said Rachel Sapoznik, president and CEO of in Miami. There is no subsidy for individualsw earning morethan $145,000 a year or joint filersz making more than $290,000.
Ineligible individuals who receives the subsidy must repay it throughincomee taxes. For Sapoznik, the response from the pool of prospectivde COBRA recipients has been higher than that of but still weaker than most She said about 20 percent of those who were deemed eligibl ehave enrolled. She said that, because those eligible have 60 days from the time they receive the lettersto participate, there may be anothere wave of enrollment.
Thosd with a cash in higher-paying jobs, are also likelier to take Those who are eligible but have not enrollefd are probably waiting for various reasons that includwe seeing if a job application turns into anew job, if they can be covered throughn another insurance plan (such as that of a and weighing the financial impact enrollment will have on the familt budget, said Dick Leonard, senior VP of employe e benefits for ’ Southeast region. it seems like people are plain cutting he said of the hard realityh of thefinancial environment. “You have to take into accountr that they still have to pay the deductablw and meetmiscellaneous expenses.
”