[Karunamon]

Entirely serious question: is COBRA actually of any use to anyone? From where I sit it's always been pretty aspirational since it requires you to also pay the employer side of the insurance which is colossally more expensive than the employee side, and you are expected to do this while being out of work?

[galdosdi]

It's useful for 60 days, since for 60 days (or maybe it's 90 or 30, I forget -- look it up yourself if you need it, don't listen to me) you can elect it retroactively. So you can go without insurance, and as long as you haven't hit the 60 days, you can retroactively pay for it if a devastating emergency happens. Actually dealing with this would be a huge logistical hassle, and god help you if you're hospitalized, unconscious, and can't file the paperwork or get someone else to, but at least you probably wouldn't go bankrupt.

Hopefully that buys you some more time to find a new job or line up an ACA plan if you're in a state with decent ACA plans, because actually paying for COBRA out of pocket for months at a time is indeed very expensive.

(It also would be totally worth it if you had existing expensive health care needs in your family)

[mynameishere]

Just to be clear. Employees ARE paying that full amount while employed. It is part of their benefits. They don't feel the cost, but it is there all the same.

[notch656c]

That would explain why COBRA is so insanely expensive.... No one is buying it unless they retroactively needed it and thus the risk pool is sky high

[sgerenser]

No, that’s not it. The cost is sky high because its the price that your employer, plus you normally pay. At tech companies in particular where the employer usually picks up 90-100% of the cost, it makes COBRA look crazy expensive when you suddenly have to pay 100% instead of 10%.

[notch656c]

I believe it; but is interesting in the context that I have purchased ACA plans on the open market comparable to my company insurance, and they were far far below the cobra price. For reference a basically identical ACA healthcare.gov plan I bought for ~1k when COBRA charged something around $3k.

[notfromhere]

ACA is subsidized, COBRA is not. That's where the huge price difference comes from.

[notch656c]

I was paying the full unsubsidized rate. Not the one for the poors where you earn less than X and you get a deal where taxes pay for part of it.

[coredog64]

There’s a hack for COBRA if you’re immediately switching jobs: Sign up for COBRA but don’t make the payments. If something really bad happens before coverage at your new employer kicks in, make the payments and the claims.

TL;DR: Treat COBRA as an options contract.

[mcast]

I thought COBRA benefits were retroactive? I was told you can sign up once you're at the hospital.

[swozey]

You can opt out of it (or not opt in) up until, I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) for up to a year after leaving the job meaning that you can deny coverage UNLESS something major comes up then you pay from that point on. So it's useful for that event, some emergency coming up.

I've never paid for it, the one time I had it come up it was something like $800/mo for me as a single 20s laid off person. Not top priority.