Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would extend and expand an expiring provision in a 2009 economic stimulus law in which the federal government pays 65 percent of COBRA health care premiums of employees who are involuntarily terminated.

That subsidy is available for up to nine months for employees who have lost their jobs since Sept. 1, 2008. Unless the law is extended, the subsidy will not be available to employees laid off after Dec. 31.

Under H.R. 3930, introduced this week by Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), the subsidy would be provided for up to 15 months. In addition, those [terminated] from Jan. 1, 2010, through June 30, 2010, also would be eligible for the subsidy.

Without an extension of the current law, employees who began collecting the subsidy on March 1 -- when it first generally became available -- will lose it at the end of November.

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