On Friday, February 13th, lawmakers signed HR-1, commonly know as the stimulus bill. Next, it will go to President Obama for his signature, Monday February 16th. A number of compromises were struck, most importantly on the House version's expansion of the Medicaid program. Instead of expanding the Medicaid Program, lawmakers agreed on language giving $87 billion in matching funds to the states through December 31rst, 2010.
Next is a provision allowing workers that were/will be involuntarily terminated between 9/1/2008 through 12/21/2009 to receive a 65% subsidy for COBRA for 9 months. After 9 months, the worker could still continue COBRA for the remaining 9 or 27 months but without the subsidy. The total cost for this provision is estimated to be $24.7 billion.
The remainder of the bill gives $19 billion to doctors and hospitals to help them institute electronic medical records, $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness technology, $1 billion for wellness and preventive programs and finally, also included in the legislation is an expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) programs and the Health Coverage Tax Credit.
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