If an employee drops his or her health coverage under a group plan before taking a FMLA leave of absence, the regulatory requirement--that the employee be covered on the day before the first day of FMLA leave--is not satisfied, and there is no qualifying event (QE) for FMLA purposes (assuming the employee does not become covered during the leave; if such coverage occurs, there is a QE).

My question: if a covered employee drops his or her coverage before taking a FMLA leave of absence, does the reduction in hours of his or her employment, that occurs when the leave is taken, cause a QE under COBRA? While in this case there is a reduction in hours of employment, the reduction in hours does not cause the loss of coverage. Rather, the loss of coverage was caused by the employee's voluntary act, and not by one of the statutorily designated events.

In my opinion, just my opinion, the employee cannot have a qualifying event that causes loss of coverage because he/she wasn’t covered under the plan when he/she had the reduction in hours. I have always interpreted the reduction in hours provision to mean that a person loses in force coverage do to the reduction in hours

Agreed. There is no coverage in force prior to taking FMLA, thus, there can be no qualifying event for this employee.