Extension of COBRA subsidy

From Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report -- the 65% subsidy expired March 31, but was reinstated once Congress came back from the Easter recess. "The fight comes as 33 different states have now run out of unemployment benefits money, and are borrowing cash from the feds to make up the difference" (Dupree, 4/12). The New York Times: Democrats claim that COBRA and other
jobless benefits are traditionally treated as "an emergency, and that the payments help the economy and generate new tax revenues, since the money is typically immediately applied to essential purchases. ... Republicans say the difference now is that the nation has sunk far too deep into deficit spending to continue to put the jobless benefits on the national credit card" (Hulse,
4/9).