Congress Not Renewing Emergency Health Care For Unemployed Workers

Emergency health care for unemployed workers expired May 31 and Congress is balking at renewing it, against the wishes of President Obama.

Not three months after lawmakers passed his $1 trillion insurance overhaul, Obama is facing a rare defeat on health care at the hands of his own divided Democrats. Moderates have rebelled against adding billions more to the deficit in a treacherous election year.

“The same Congress that spent all this political capital trying to get people health insurance is going to take a crucial benefit away from unemployed people,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for the unemployed.

Chuck Lacasse an unemployed advertising man, says, “This really isn’t about welfare. It’s about buying people some time.”  Conservative Democrats don’t want to help only some workers, who would benefit from the COBRA plan, but not others who are priced out of the private market.  Here’s a novel idea: help both sets of workers.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.