Eakinomics: H.R.
6201
By now most people know that the House passed a bill responding to the
COVID-19 pandemic. But what is in
the bill is a bit more complicated. There are some fairly straightforward
enhancements to Medicaid, food programs, and unemployment insurance. But
there were also two
leave programs and, as it turned out, two
different versions of the bill.
Last Friday, the House passed a version of H.R. 6201 (“Families First”)
that had an emergency paid sick-leave program and a 1-year modification of
the existing Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In each case, individuals
were eligible if they worked in a firm of under 500 employees and were
either sick with the coronavirus, quarantined, taking care of someone sick
with the coronavirus, or taking care of a child whose school had closed.
At that point, AAF’s crack team of Isabel Soto
and Tara O’Neill
Hayes got busy sorting out the implications of the bill. Just as
they arrived at the bottom line, Monday the House passed a “technical
corrections” amendment to Families First. As it turned out, it was far more
than that. Indeed, it entirely eliminated eligibility for those taking care
of someone infected by the coronavirus. The upshot was to lower
dramatically the coverage and cost of the leave programs.
According to the analysis
of the final version, there are four major implications:
- Emergency paid sick leave and childcare
leave could cost
between $41 billion and $118 billion, and
this sum could rise to over $280 billion if restrictions on firm size
were eliminated;
- The expanded unemployment
insurance benefits add $1 billion;
- Increased Medicaid funding,
free testing for everyone, and additional funding for other Federal
health care programs cost $56 billion, $1 billion, and $300 million,
respectively; and
- Additional nutritional
assistance for a variety of low-income assistance programs costs
$1.25 billion, and additional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program benefits cost $6.8 billion.
That’s good news for families if
they are covered. Now the action is in the Senate, which can simply pass
the House version or modify it to provide greater coverage and greater
stimulus. Stay tuned.
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