COBRA After Leaving a Job: Is It Worth It for the Self-Employed?
COBRA keeps your exact plan and your exact doctors. It also costs what your employer was hiding from you.
COBRA lets you keep the plan you already had after leaving a job. That is genuinely valuable, and it is also why the price is such a shock.
Why the number jumps so much
Your employer was paying most of your premium and you only ever saw your share on a payslip. On COBRA you pay the whole thing, plus an administrative fee of up to two percent. Nothing about the coverage changed. The subsidy did.
When COBRA is the right call anyway
Stay on it if you are mid-treatment, have surgery scheduled, or are deep into your deductible for the year. Switching plans resets your deductible to zero and can interrupt a course of care. Paying more for a few months to finish treatment on the same plan is often the cheaper decision overall.
When to move
If you are between things and not mid-treatment, compare COBRA against what you would actually pay elsewhere. Check the marketplace first for a subsidy. Then look at flat-priced group plans, which start at $269 a month for an individual and $679 for a family. Confirm your doctors are in the new network before you cancel anything.
Do not create a gap
New coverage through Benefit Airship starts on the 1st of a month. Enroll by the 15th and you start the 1st of next month; after the 15th you wait until the month after. Keep COBRA paid through the last day before your new plan begins.