COBRA and The American Rescue Plan

[Pom]

So, I logged in to pay our insurance via COBRA due today, to find out that H’s ex employer has terminated the benefit company without telling us. We proceed to call benefit person at former employer about the Cobra benefits administrator and also ask about subsidies that are being offered through the American Rescue Plan and he informed us that since Mr P was terminated prior to April 1st he is ineligible. That was not what I read earlier. Has that been updated to exclude people terminated prior to 4.1.2021?

[Pom]

www.google.com/amp/s/www.natlawreview.com/article/new-covid-19-relief-package-provides-free-cobra-premiums-starting-april-1-what%3famp

So former employer benefit person is trying to say that since we paid March 2021 premium we are not eligible for the Cobra subsidy. Is that correct?

ETA. Because that is not what I read. Part of Mr. P’s team was terminated at the same time. We can afford to be without the subsidy, others may not.

[chpmnk1015]

Hmmm. We are going through this with people at work now and from what our benefits people are telling u the people terminated mid march should be eligible... there were still anlot of questions though..like is govt paying cobra direct or the person then getting reimbursed... they hope to have more info next week... im hoping to be eligible for this when im laid off end of april

[idahome]

As long as your husband is in his initial 18 month COBRA eligibility period he might be eligible. The baseline factor that determines whether someone is eligible for the subsidy deals with their current employment status (suffered a reduction in hours) or job loss status (must have been involuntarily terminated).

If your husband resigned or retired he would NOT be eligible for the subsidy.

[Pom]

Apr 2, 2021 19:54:47 GMT -5 idahome said:

As long as your husband is in his initial 18 month COBRA eligibility period he might be eligible. The baseline factor that determines whether someone is eligible for the subsidy deals with their current employment status (suffered a reduction in hours) or job loss status (must have been involuntarily terminated).

If your husband resigned or retired he would NOT be eligible for the subsidy.

Thank you for responding. The new company management fired him due to a redundancy with a merger. He, nor did any of his team resign, and since this happened at the end of February, they have 16 months of COBRA eligibility period remaining. It concerns me that the head of HR tried to tell us otherwise.

[idahome]

Apr 3, 2021 8:21:30 GMT -5 Pom said:

Apr 2, 2021 19:54:47 GMT -5 idahome said:

As long as your husband is in his initial 18 month COBRA eligibility period he might be eligible. The baseline factor that determines whether someone is eligible for the subsidy deals with their current employment status (suffered a reduction in hours) or job loss status (must have been involuntarily terminated).

If your husband resigned or retired he would NOT be eligible for the subsidy.

Thank you for responding. The new company management fired him due to a redundancy with a merger. He, nor did any of his team resign, and since this happened at the end of February, they have 16 months of COBRA eligibility period remaining. It concerns me that the head of HR tried to tell us otherwise.

I’m sorry that the former HR person doesn’t understand how this law is supposed to benefit your husband. It doesn’t “harm” the company because they’ll claim the COBRA subsidies paid against their quarterly taxes. So it’s a neutral situation for them.

I’m guessing the company uses a third petty COBRA administrator so I would reach out to them to see how they’re handling it.

Good luck!