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J.B. Harris: A Day Late, A COBRA Short.

Did any of you know that J.B. Harris once worked at United Auto?

I didn't, but according to this 11th Circuit opinion his tenure as in-house counsel was apparently pretty brief.

Once he stopped working there, he continued to maintain his own health insurance coverage through COBRA -- which if I'm not mistaken is an early, more euphemistic government variant to the Obama Death Panels.

But then his wife and a possible "part-time" mailman entered the picture:

Harris asserts that his wife placed the payment in the mailbox on February 11, 2008, but the envelope containing the payment was not post-marked until February 12. According to the complaint, Harris?s wife

either inadvertently [placed the check in the mailbox] after the mail carrier had made his rounds. Or the envelope was picked up that day and post-marked a day later ? February 12, 2008 ? a real possibility in some areas of South Carolina ? like where Mrs. HARRIS lives ? because the postal service often employs part-time mail carriers, who use their own vehicles to deliver the mail, and the mail could have gotten delayed, misplaced or even left in the carrier?s car overnight, before making its way to the post office the next day to be postmarked.

Because the envelope was not received within the time period for payment and was postmarked one day after the end of the grace period, Ceridian terminated Harris?s COBRA coverage. Harris attempted to resolve this with UAIG and Ceridian, but they refused to reinstate his coverage.

Ain't health care fun in America?

BTW, I'm pretty sure I recognize that mailman -- not only did he deliver the mail to Mrs. Harris, but I'm pretty sure he also delivered the mail to Chevy Chase in Funny Farm.

See, I knew it would some day pay off to rewatch those subpar 80s comedies over and over and over again.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).