Another COBRA subsidy extension included in Obama's budget plan

"Federal COBRA health insurance premium subsidies provided to involuntarily terminated employees would be extended again, the Obama administration proposed Monday," Business Insurance reports. "Under the latest extension—embedded in the administration's proposed federal budget for fiscal 2011—employees who are laid off from March 1, 2010, through Dec. 31, 2010, would be eligible for the 65% premium subsidy for up to 12 months. Under current law, employees laid off from Sept. 1, 2008, through Feb. 28, 2010, can receive the premium subsidy for up to 15 months. Those individuals would not be affected by the latest extension. ... An extension of the COBRA premium subsidy law also is expected as part of a jobs bill Senate Democrats are expected to unveil this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday" (Geisel, 2/1).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.