Stimulus Package and Health Care

The stimulus package aims to let people who have lost their jobs still hang onto health insurance. If the new stimulus package comes into effect, COBRA, the law which lets people keep health insurance from their old jobs, will be extended. People who have lost a job they've had for the last 10 years can stay on COBRA until Medicare takes over. People 55 and over can do this without meeting the 10 year requirement.

The billions that will go to health care from the stimulus package will do very little to help people who are uninsured. Jobs aren't the focus of the stimulus package either, the package is simply a temporary lifeline which will lessen the impact of losing one's job.


Most doctors still rely on paper files. Obama plans to spend $50 billion on converting these files to digital records. Digital records may cut administrative costs and improve care by making it easy to share patient information.