Reply #22: Your anger seems badly misdirected.

[No Elephants]

Kennedy acted on legislation throughout his life to help folks get access to health care, from neighnorhood health clinic to the public option bill he wrote as he was dying.

COBRA (not CORBA) saved many a life. It was designed primarily to allow people, including those with pre-existing conditions, to stay insured until they got another job where they would be covered under an employere group plan.

Sorry it did not work out financially to your liking for you and your wife on her early retirement, but it was not designed as retirement health care plan. That would be Medicare, not COBRA.

"The total cost was $10,000 a year not including co-pays and other expenses if we went out of network."

I am not sure whose network you are talking about or why you would not want to stay in network. All that would be a function of the insurance your wife's former employer chose for employees. None of that has nothing to do with Kennedy or COBRA. Neither does the annual cost of private health insurance.

Sadly, 10K a year for a couple for private health insurance is not bad at all these days, but that has nothing to do with Kennedy or COBRA either. COBRA only required that private insurers continue to insure people during your unemployment, instead of dropping you entirely and leaving people, esp. those with pre-existing conditions, no way at all to get any health insurance whatever.

"Q2: What does COBRA do?

COBRA provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. This coverage, however, is only available when coverage is lost due to certain specific events. Group health coverage for COBRA participants is usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees, since usually the employer pays a part of the premium for active employees while COBRA participants generally pay the entire premium themselves. It is ordinarily less expensive, though, than individual health coverage."

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-consumer-cobra.html

It seems from your post that staying in network was your less expensive solution. And, if you were unable to pay that, you could have applied for Medicaid, which I'm guessing Kennedy also voted for. So, one way or another, you would have been able to access medical care, even without Medicare, which is the entire point.

Finally, you did not explain how you and your wife would have been better off COBRA did not exist. If COBRA improved your situation at all, without disproportionate cost to taxpayers, I really don't get your beef against Kennedy.

Moreover, I don't know why Kennedy has to take the blame anyway. I don't know if he authored COBRA, but I'll take your word on that. Didn't all of Congress vote on it in 1986 and didn't President Reagan sign it?

BTW, I recommend posting here more often. It's good for perspective--and for facts!