As the law currently provides, the COBRA premium assistance program expires on March 31, 2010. That is, any employee involuntarily terminated after March 31, 2010, must still be offered COBRA coverage but the employee will not be able to pay only the 35% and have the federal government reimburse the rest through a payroll tax credit.
There is, however, a bill pending in Congress that would extend the COBRA premium assistance program to cover involuntary terminations that occur on or before April 30, 2010. The bill passed the house but a final vote in the Senate was filibustered and no vote is expected before March 31, 2010.
The Senate is, in fact, in recess and isn't expect to consider the bill until April 12, 2010, so neither employers nor employees will know until mid-month whether the COBRA premium assistance program will apply to involuntary terminations that happen in April 2010. Should the program be extended, which seems probable, expect it to apply retroactively, to all involuntary terminations during April 2010.
A prior post addressed the COBRA notices employers will need to send out to affected employees. Expect something similar to be required if the COBRA premium assistance program gets extended in mid-April.
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