Marcia, I must have been living under a rock when they passed that one....is that only for employees who are terminated, or is that for any ex-employee, regardless of reason for the person no longer working there?

I'm pretty sure that this is only for terminated employees. Our company got a letter about this ages ago - your company must have received one too. Check out this link: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html

BTW, I was wrong - the employer pays 65% of the cost for COBRA.