Can an employer elect to pay for the health insurance of employees who elect an early retirement package for a set period of time, essentially deferring the start of COBRA?

There's at least one federal court decision that has held that the EEs in such a situation would be losing coverage when the set period of time ends, but not by reason of their termination of employment--and therefore those EEs might not be entitled to COBRA continuation rights at that time.

Why not just subsidize the cobra premiums, rather than delaying COBRA? I would imagine you would have to do this for all employees in the same situation regardless of level in the company. Also, don't forget this might fall under the COBRA Stimulus subsidy rules as well