Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri established a new law by signing a bill for COBRA extension. This will make the subsidy available for laid off small business workers.
Across the nation, the COBRA subsidy of 65 percent only applies to citizens who were employed by companies with 20 or more employees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This was part of the federal bill included in the economic stimulus package.
Rhode Island workers from all companies who’ve been laid off now are eligible for COBRA as this new state law outlines. But, workers laid off after Sept. 1. 2008 must hurry and sign up by May 1, 2009 to take advantage of the eligibility.
Rhode Island legislature discovered the small business employees were not included in the subsidy within days of the federal bill passage and moved quickly for a procedural change in the state law. The reason they acted so quickly was there was a April 17 deadline imposed by the federal government to make changes, according to the Providence Journal.
Hundreds of Rhode Islanders will now be able to sign up for this program and it will be more affordable for everyone because of the federal subsidy. At the end of the day, this is just about giving more Rhode Islanders that are hurting right now ” who are out of work and struggling for health insurance ” the help they need to get the benefit and reduce expenses, said Governor Carcieri.
