FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2002

Contact: Josh Freed
(202) 225-4431

DENVER - U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (CO-1) announced today that she will sign a discharge petition this week to force a vote on legislation to provide health care benefits for unemployed workers.

"There is currently an enormous need for health care relief for unemployed workers," said DeGette. There are now 7.9 million unemployed Americans across the country-with the number of unemployed having risen by almost 2 million since the recession began in March 2001. Colorado's unemployment rate for the first time in a decade topped the national rate. We have the highest percentage increase in people who are exhausting their unemployment benefits. "Most Americans get their health insurance through their jobs, so the growing loss of jobs has been accompanied by many Americans losing their health insurance as well. One major illness could put people already struggling on unemployment in the position of losing their homes," added DeGette.

"The bill we passed last week to extend unemployment benefits did not include any aid for health care," said DeGette. "The only health care proposal the Republican leadership supports is a tax credit proposal that would result in helping few if any laid-off workers obtain health coverage-since it requires unemployed workers to come up with 40% of the health insurance premium on their own. Our bill will provide help that people can use."

The bill supported by DeGette, H.R. 3341, has three key components:

• Providing Premium Assistance for Unemployed Workers Eligible for COBRA. Once a COBRA-eligible employee is laid off, they must pay 102% of the health insurance premium to participate-an average of $7,200 per year for a family. This is an incredible burden for workers who have been laid off and have no income. Therefore, Democrats are proposing a federal subsidy of 75% of the COBRA premium costs for a period of 12 months for laid-off workers. We are also calling for allowing states to cover the remaining 25% of the premium for low-income workers (with federal assistance).
• Temporary Medicaid Option for Unemployed Workers Not Eligible for COBRA. Many unemployed workers are not eligible for COBRA. This group includes: 1) workers who worked for small businesses; 2) workers in the individual health insurance market; 3) workers who worked for companies that go bankrupt; and 4) workers who could not afford health insurance before they were laid off. Therefore, Democrats are proposing to help these workers by giving the states the option to add a new eligibility category to Medicaid to cover laid-off workers who are not COBRA-eligible for up to 12 months. The Federal Government would pick up a larger share of the state's Medicaid costs for these individuals than its normal share.
• Temporary Enhanced Federal Matching Rate for Medicaid. State budgets have felt the strain of the economic downturn. At the same time, the growing ranks of the unemployed have generated an increased demand for Medicaid coverage. The Democratic proposal would help states cope with the resulting financial constraints while attempting to help ensure that state Medicaid programs are exempt from further budget cuts. The Democratic proposal would help states meet the increase in Medicaid costs by temporarily increasing the federal matching rate for Medicaid.
   
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