Labor Laws

In America, most people's health insurance is intimately connected with their place of employment.  Congress has established certain guidelines that employers must follow when taking actions that will affect a person's health insurance coverage.

I)  FMLA-The Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") allows certain employees to take up to twelve weeks off from work for "serious health conditions."  While employers are not obligated under FMLA to pay for an employee's health insurance, they are obligated to maintain an employee's benefits if that employee requests the opportunity to pay the insurance premiums himself.  FMLA provides an avenue of recovery for many patients who thought they lost their health insurance due to a prolonged absence from work. 

II)  COBRA-COBRA is a comprehensive statute that, amongst other things, allows individuals to continue participating in an employer-sponsored group health insurance plan after a "qualifying event" has occurred.  There are numerous types of "qualifying events,"and various duties that are imposed upon an employer and other plan fiduciaries once a qualifying event has occurred.  Because employers frequently fail to meet their COBRA responsibilities, patients often can elect COBRA coverage after the 60 day election period has expired.

III)  AMERICAN REINVESTMENT & RECOVERY ACT-The American Reinvestment & Recovery Act of 2009 ("ARRA"), while not specifically a labor law, made special one-time changes to some existing labor laws, such as COBRA.  Specifically, ARRA provided individuals who had been involuntarily terminated from employment between September 1, 2008, and February 28, 2010, with the right to make reduced COBRA payments and a second opportunity to elect COBRA coverage, even if they declined COBRA coverage when they were originally terminated.