March 4th, 2010 – On Tuesday night President Obama signed into law a 31 day extension of federal subsidies of COBRA health care premiums. This means that the 65%, 15-month premium subsidy for laid-off workers is extended to those involuntarily terminated from March 1 through March 31. Otherwise, people laid off after February 28th would have been ineligible for the COBRA premium subsidy.
On Wednesday, the US Senate is debating H.R. 4213, which would extend the premium subsidy to employees laid off through Dec. 31, 2010.
Nationally unemployment fell to 9.7 percent in January. The Labor Department is due to report the unemployment rate for February this Friday.
