Players Must Pay for Own Health Insurance : Hockey: NHL says it is following U.S. federal law by giving 60-day notice that it is curtailing benefits.

The NHL has decided to stop paying health insurance costs for locked-out players and their families, saying it is following U.S. federal law by giving players 60-day notice that they can keep their coverage only if they pay the entire cost themselves.

Union chief Bob Goodenow is upset about slow notification after learning of the Oct. 15 move only hours before Tom Kurvers of the Mighty Ducks and his pregnant wife, Suzy, were involved in a head-on collision Thursday night in Anaheim and were apparently incorrectly informed at the hospital that their insurance had been “terminated.”

Kurvers has since been assured he will be covered, but was more concerned about his wife, who is expecting their first child in December and has spent two nights at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center because she began contractions after the accident.

“She’ll be fine, and the baby’s fine,” said Kurvers, who said he was waiting to make a turn when they were hit by a suspected drunk driver who crossed a median. “Our insurance was terminated on Oct. 15 and I found that out at the hospital. I was sitting there with Suzy and they said they wanted to make sure I was aware of that. I was a little bit surprised, more than surprised.”

NHL spokesman Arthur Pincus said “no player has been without health coverage” and called the move “an option that is ours during a work stoppage. We’ve not left anybody without health coverage.”

Federal law known as COBRA allows workers who lose or change their jobs to extend their employer health coverage at their own cost for up to 18 months, with a 60-day window to make a decision without their coverage being interrupted. Notices of the Oct. 15 move dated Oct. 18 were mailed within the legally mandated 14-day period, but players say they did not begin receiving them until this week, and Kurvers hadn’t received his at the time of the accident.

“They sent the notices by regular mail and they didn’t call us,” Goodenow said.

Goodenow said the NHLPA will pay players’ insurance costs during the lockout--which would amount to about $600 a month for each player, according to an NHL source.

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In moves that add up to no foreseeable end to the lockout, an NHL spokesman said that more games will be canceled and the players’ association rejected an offer to look into management’s books.

Through Friday, 154 games--14.1% of the 1,092-game schedule--had been missed. However, the league has canceled only four games from each club’s 84-game schedule, saying that games might be rescheduled. Announcing more cancellations--the actual canceling will be done Monday and might erase 10 games per team--is a concession that the season will be greatly curtailed when, or if, it begins.