Bankruptcy Indiana

Losing a job is, more often than not, a "two-fer" as far as trouble goes.  Downsized workers are losing their health insurance benefits along with their positions.  On a daily basis, in all four of my Indiana bankruptcy law offices, I'm seeing signs of the sharp rise in medical cost-driven bankruptcy filing.  My experience is borne out by statistics from CreditCards.com, showing medical debt is the reason for the majority of bankruptcies today.
There are three sets of federal laws designed to help consumers avoid gaps in health insurance coverage.

HIPAA  
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.  HIPAA guarantees coverage for those rejected in the private market (provided they were continuously covered before applying).

COBRA
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act allows employees to continue an employer's group plan at their own expense, for up to eighteen months.

SCHIP
The State Children's Health Insurance Program was first created in 1997, and was recently renewed by the U.S. Senate.  The program is designed to provide health care coverage for children in families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but who cannot afford to buy private health (or even pay the employee share of employer health plan premiums).  Funding for SCHIP is federal, but it is administeed within each state.

It's the second of these, COBRA, that President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act addresses, by offering a subsidy to help fund the cost of COBRA health insurance premiums.  (The subsidy was 65%, then was raised to 85%) The subsidy is paid by the employer, who then claims reimbursement from the government.

Since not everyone is eligible for the subsidy (COBRA applies only if the company had 20 or more employees for most of the preceding calendar year), many individuals need to avail themselves of some of the low and no-cost help offered by some Indiana hospitals and not-for-profit organizations which I listed in my blog post two weeks ago (see "Two Out Of Three Is Bad In Bankruptcy"). 

Many of my Indiana bankruptcy clients have been laid off through downsizing.  For some, illness (or the need to care for an ill family member) prevents them from working.  The three programs, HIPAA, COBRA (especially with the subsidy), and SCHIP could literally prove to be lifesavers.