COBRA Subsidy Extension

On March 2, 2010 the U.S. Senate passed the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 and the President signed the bill into law on March 2, 2010. The Temporary Extension Act extends the COBRA subsidy program that was enacted under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to provide a 15-month 65 percent premium subsidy to those involuntarily terminated from March 1 through March 31, 2010. The law also allows employees to receive the subsidy if they first lost group coverage due to a reduction in hours and then were terminated after enactment of the bill.

These short term extensions of the COBRA subsidy benefit (it was recently previously to February 28, 2010) is intended to give Congress more time to consider legislation to extend the program through December 31, 2010.

We will keep you advised of any information we receive.