'It feels like we are still hostages': Federal contractors who lost health insurance during shutdown
Janice Morgan, a federal contractor out of work because of the government shutdown, spent part of January fearing that she might finally lose her husband, Milton, to his battle with multiple sclerosis. He was in intensive care. An infection had sent his heart rate and blood pressure soaring. And when she tried nine days ago to fill his prescription for a $7,600-a-month medication, another blow came: Her insurance coverage had been canceled.
Morgan called her boss, the president of Unispec Enterprises, a contracting firm that provides personnel to government agencies. He told her that the shutdown had left him unable to pay the company’s premiums. Soon, all 75 of Unispec’s technical writers, data analysts and economists — most of whom have their coverage through the firm — would learn of the lapse in an email.
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“After negotiating with CareFirst for weeks since this very painful government shutdown, we regret to announce that, due to lack of payment, our group health insurance was terminated on Thursday (January 17th) effective 12/31/2018,” it began. McClure wrote that employees could be reimbursed for health costs after coverage was restored, a belief based on conversations he had with the insurer, and he ended the email with: “This pains me to send. I only hope this is over soon.”
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The federal government maintains no comprehensive database of contract employees paid with federal dollars. A Washington Post analysis found that nearly 10,000 companies had active contracts with the federal government at some point during the shutdown. More than 6,000 of those are considered small businesses.
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“But I just never saw us here,” he said. “For the first time, this company will have zero revenue for an entire month — zero — that’s just something no business can fully plan for.”
... more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/it-feels-like-we-are-still-hostages-federal-contractors-who-lost-health-insurance-during-shutdown-remain-in-limbo/2019/01/27/9a1020a2-20c3-11e9-9145-3f74070bbdb9_story.html
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