In 1985, the United States government passed the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act or COBRA, for short. The law gave workers and their families the right to continue their workplace health insurance coverage after a qualifying event occurs where they would otherwise lose their health plan.
Workers use COBRA after voluntary or involuntary termination. Additionally, COBRA continuing health coverage is available to former spouses after divorce, retirees before they begin Medicare and children that lose their dependent status.
COBRA is available to qualified beneficiaries who were on an employer group health plan for at least 1 day, where the business has 20 or more fulltime workers.
Coverage Rules And Deadlines For COBRA
In simple terms, this is how you obtain COBRA insurance:
Your employer’s work health insurance ended due to a qualifying event.
Within 45 days of the qualifying event, the employer sends you an election notice to restart your workplace insurance.
Within 60 days of the election notice, you may choose to enroll back into your health plan where the coverage will pick up back up after making your first premium payment.
Your copays, coinsurance, deductibles, out-of-pocket expenses and insurance cards for the year stay the same.
You have 45 days to make your first COBRA premium payment.
The coverage is retroactive and any medical expenses you incur before the COBRA plan starts may be submitted for reimbursement.
Qualifying Events For COBRA Health Insurance Eligibility
Continuation of workplace benefits requires an eligible qualifying event, such as job loss, temporary reduction in hours or a family-related event such as the death of the covered employee or divorce from a spouse.
When a qualifying event occurs, a special open enrollment period opens where your past employer is required to offer a continuation of your medical insurance coverage.
As long as you were enrolled in a qualified group health plan for one day, you can continue that same insurance.
