A review of recent developments affecting COBRA rights

Due to the high cost of health care claims and COBRA's status as remedial legislation, COBRA has generated a significant amount of litigation in recent years. While the early COBRA decisions tended to broaden the law in order to provide a remedy to an otherwise uninsured qualified beneficiary, the recent trend in the case law has been to limit the expansion of COBRA rights based on a narrower construction of the statute. Even so, COBRA still represents a legal minefield for employers. As a result, a careful employer will minimize its exposure by monitoring changes in the law and its interpretation and making appropriate modifications to its COBRA documentation and administration. This article discusses some of the more significant recent changes in the law affecting qualified beneficiaries' COBRA rights--and therefore, employers' exposure.     

Book reviews

Marju Lauristin and Peeter Vihalemm with Karl Erik Rosengren and Lennart Weibull, Return to the Western World. Cultural and Political Perspectives on the Estonian Post‐communist Transition (Tartu University Press, Tartu, 1997), xvi +387 pp., ISBN 9985–56–257–7

Peter H. Merkl and Leonard Weinberg (eds), The Revival of Right‐wing Extremism in the Nineties (Frank Cass, London, 1997), 289 pp., ISBN 0 7146 4676 8 (hb), 0 7146 4207 X (pb)

Arthur Lipow, Political Parties and Democracy (Pluto, London, 1996), 256 pp., ISBN 0 7453 1099 0 (hb), 0 7453 1098 2 (pb)

Gerald F. Gaus, Justificatory Liberalism: An Essay on Epistemology and Political Theory (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996), ix + 374 pp., ISBN 0–19–509439–5 (hb), 0–19–509440–9 (pb)

Mark T. Berger and Douglas A. Borer (eds), The Rise of East Asia: Critical Visions of the Pacific Century (Routledge, London, 1997), 308 pp., ISBN 0–415–16167–3 (hb), 0–415–16168–1 (pb)

Paul Anderson and Nyta Mann, Safety First: The Making of New Labour (Granta, London, 1997), 456 pp., ISBN 1–86207–070–9