Health insurance after you lose employer coverage

Losing job-based health coverage is one of the life changes HealthCare.gov uses for a Special Enrollment Period. Outside open enrollment, that window is how most people get into a Marketplace plan. This page is the rule in plain language. It is not a judgment that you should drop COBRA or buy a Marketplace plan.

The window HealthCare.gov describes

You may qualify if you, or someone in your household, lost qualifying health coverage in the past 60 days or expects to lose it in the next 60 days. A loss of Medicaid or CHIP can use a longer look-back: the past 90 days, on the same official page. You may have to send documents. If you are turned down and you think that is wrong, HealthCare.gov says you can appeal.

Job-based coverage includes a plan through your employer, through a family member’s employer, or COBRA. Aging off a parent’s plan at 26 is treated on that page as its own loss of family coverage. Choosing to drop dependent coverage, by itself, does not qualify unless you also meet the income or prior-coverage conditions the page spells out.

COBRA, including the part people skip

HealthCare.gov describes COBRA as a federal law that lets you and your family keep an employer group plan for a limited time after a qualifying event, such as losing a job or having hours reduced. When COBRA ends, you have 60 days to enroll in a Marketplace plan. That applies when COBRA expires or is no longer available, not when you voluntarily cancel it early.

If you leave COBRA before 18 months, the reason matters. Losing it involuntarily, for example because the employer stops the coverage or you lose eligibility, can qualify you. Voluntarily dropping it, including stopping payment on your own, does not. This site does not say what COBRA will cost you. The full premium is often the point people compare, and the plan documents are the only honest price.

What to line up before you decide

• The date coverage actually ends, not the date of the last paycheck.
• Whether a spouse’s employer plan is a real option.
• Doctors, drugs, and the other costs besides premium.
• Whether you are becoming self-employed. The enrollment rule is about losing coverage, which this guide separates from the new work itself.

Marketplace applications for this kind of window start at HealthCare.gov. Couvertier’s advisors can explain the papers with you. The firm has said it does not offer Medicare or Medicaid plans.