Free-Reprint Article Written by: Kevin Kielty
See Terms of Reprint Below.


*****************************************************************
*
* This email is being delivered directly to members of the group:
*
* health-articles@yahoogroups.com
*
*****************************************************************


We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.
Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS
OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you.

This article has been distributed by:
http://Article-Distribution.com

Helpful Link:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Article Title:
==============

Government Measures to Help with Health Insurance

Article Description:
====================

Changes to COBRA and the State Children's Health Insurance
Program can provide valuable assistance to those recently
unemployed.


Additional Article Information:
===============================

502 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2009-04-02 13:12:00

Written By: Kevin Kielty
Copyright: 2009
Contact Email: mailto:vck@...



For more free-reprint articles by Kevin Kielty, please visit:
http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/kevin-kielty.html


=============================================
Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:
=============================================

If you use this article on your website or in your ezine,
We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let
us know where you have used this article, and we will
include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com:

http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=6667&p=load


HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste
Versions Of Article Are Available at:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/k/health-insurance-government-assis\
tance.shtml#get_code

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Government Measures to Help with Health Insurance
Copyright (c) 2009 Kevin Kielty
North Carolina Insurance
http://www.ncinsuranceplan.com



The rising unemployment rate is causing not just job loss but
also the loss of valuable health insurance coverage for many
people. In response, the federal government has enacted new
legislation to help with COBRA coverage as well as state aid to
families with children.

Changes to COBRA

COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of
1986. Under COBRA, if you worked for a company that had more than
20 employees, then you are able to continue on the group health
insurance plan for as much as 18 months. The downside of COBRA is
that it can be quite expensive. In most states, recipients report
that COBRA payments account for more than 75% of their
unemployment benefit. However, under the recently passed Economic
Stimulus Package, you could be eligible for assistance with 65%
of your COBRA premium.

To qualify for the program you must have lost your job between
September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. Your income must be less
than $125,000 for an individual and less than $250,000 a year for
a family. If you did not take advantage of COBRA initially, you
can still sign up for it. If you did sign up for COBRA coverage,
you won't get any money back for the premiums you have already
paid, but you will be eligible for assistance from the point
after the law has taken effect. Under the new law you will pay
35% of the premium, and the government pays the other 65%. Your
assistance could continue for as much as nine months.

State Children's Health Insurance Program

Another measure the federal government has taken recently to help
people with health insurance coverage is to expand the State
Children's Health Insurance Program or SCHIP. The law will
provide $32 billion to the program over the next five years and
expand coverage to from 7 to 11 million children. SCHIP is
designed to provide health care coverage for children up to age
19 and pregnant women, in families whose income is low, but not
low enough to qualify for Medicaid. A portion of the funding will
come from an increase in the tax on cigarettes.

Under SCHIP, the federal government provides the states with
matching funds to provide health care for families with children.
To qualify, families could earn only up to 200% of the poverty
level. Under the new law, families can earn up to 300% of the
poverty level and still qualify for SCHIP. Each state has set up
their program differently, so programs can vary from state to
state.

If you find yourself out of a job and out of health insurance,
two recent measures by the federal government may provide some
assistance. The first are changes to the COBRA program in which
the government could pick up to 65% of the cost of your health
insurance premium. The other is the expansion of the State
Children's Health Insurance Program. Either of these options
could provide short-term assistance with health insurance
coverage for the recently unemployed.




---------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Kielty lives in North Carolina and writes articles
on health insurance. If you are looking for rate quotes
on health insurance in North Carolina, visit BCBSNC, also
known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
http://www.ncinsuranceplan.com


--- END ARTICLE ---

Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/k/health-insurance-government-assis\
tance.shtml#get_code



.....................................

TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules
(Last Updated: May 11, 2006)

Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of:

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR:

.....................................

*** Digital Reprint Rights ***

* If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog,
You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body
of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as
Hyperlinks (clickable links).

* Links must remain in the form that we published them.
Clean links should point to the Author's links without
redirects having been inserted into the copy.

* You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or
Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks
must be retained with articles. You can change where
the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all
paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do.

* Email Distribution of this article Must be done through
Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email.


* You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for
proper display of the article in your website or in your
ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests
within the article.

* You may not use sentences from this article as an input
for any software that steals sentences from others in
order to build an article with software. The copyright on
this article applies to the "WHOLE" article.


*** Author Notification ***

We ask that you notify the author of publication of his
or her work. Kevin Kielty can be reached at:
vck@...


*** Print Publication Reprint Rights ***

If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT
publication, you must contact the author directly
for Print Permission at:
mailto:vck@...



.....................................

If you need help converting this text article for proper
hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this
free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl



=====================================================================

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION

http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution
service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com
are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA.
Learn more about our article distribution services by visiting:
http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/article-distribution/index.html

The content of this article is solely the property
and opinion of its author, Kevin Kielty
http://www.ncinsuranceplan.com



---------------------------------------------------------------------
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
---------------------------------------------------------------------