Workers and employers are asking how the temporary COBRA benefits continuation subsidy in the new American Rescue Plan package might really work.
Members of the House voted 220-211 Wednesday for final passage of a motion to concur in a Senate amendment to H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act bill.
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he expects to sign the ARP bill Friday in the White House.
Most analysts have focused on other parts of the bill, such as provisions relating to $1,400 stimulus payments that many Americans are supposed to get.
The main congressional summaries of the act state that the ARP COBRA subsidy provision in the act will create a federal tax credit that can help workers who lose their jobs. Employers can use the tax credit to reduce the cost for a worker continuing health coverage to zero for the period from April 1 through Sept. 30.
Finding a summary that explains the provision in more detail is difficult.
Possible Help From the Past
One clue may be how regulators interpreted the COBRA tax credit subsidy provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The ARRA COBRA tax credit subsidy, along with a later subsidy extension, helped pay 85% of eligible workers' COBRA health benefits continuation premiums for the period running from Sept. 1, 2008, through May 31, 2010.
Congress based that COBRA premium subsidy on an older, narrowly targeted subsidy that helped workers hurt by the effects of international trade agreements pay for their health coverage.
The ARP and ARRA COBRA provisions differ in some ways.
