{"id":780,"date":"2021-04-01T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2021-03-31T16:31:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T20:31:02","slug":"covid-provoked-cobra-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/?p=780","title":{"rendered":"COVID Provoked COBRA Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (\u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/general\/topic\/health-plans\/cobra\" target=\"_blank\">COBRA<\/a>\u201d) gives workers who lose their health benefits and their families the right to choose to continue group health benefits for limited periods of time under certain circumstances such as job loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death and divorce. Qualified individuals may be required to pay the entire health insurance premium for coverage up to 102% of the cost to the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/defiant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/covid-19-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/covid-19-3.jpg 200w, https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/covid-19-3-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/117th-congress\/house-bill\/1319\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ARPA<\/a>&#8220;) provided, among other provisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>an estimated $1.9 trillion in stimulus aid for the COVID-19 pandemic <\/li><li>additional recovery rebate checks<\/li><li>changes to certain child-based tax credits<\/li><li>making certain unemployment benefits free of federal income tax<\/li><li>extending certain tax credits for employee retention and employer provided sick leave<\/li><li>providing additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program<\/li><li>providing grants to places that serve food and drink<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">ARPA also made a number of changes to COBRA, including:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">a federal government reimbursement of up to six months of health insurance premiums <\/span><\/li><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">an extension of the period in which a worker can elect to enroll in a COBRA health plan<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (\u201cCOBRA\u201d) gives workers who lose their health benefits and their families the right to choose to continue group health benefits for limited periods of time under certain circumstances such as job loss, reduction in the hours worked, transition between jobs, death and divorce. Qualified individuals may be required to &#8230; <a title=\"COVID Provoked COBRA Changes\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/?p=780\" aria-label=\"Read more about COVID Provoked COBRA Changes\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,46],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","category-health-care","tag-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waltercounsel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}