Lost Your Job and Need Health Insurance? Your Options and Deadlines
Get a Marketplace quote first, using the income you now expect for the year, unemployment benefits included. Then set it beside your COBRA notice and decide before the Marketplace’s 60-day deadline, which runs from the day your job-based coverage ends.
Marketplace, COBRA or Medicaid: cost and deadlines
| Option | What you pay | Deadline | Worth a close look if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace plan | Your quote, after any savings based on your expected income for the year | Apply within 60 days of losing job-based coverage | Your income for the year will be lower than before |
| COBRA (same plan you had) | Up to 102% of the full premium; about $833 a month on an average single plan | At least 60 days to elect; at least 45 days after that for the first payment | You’re mid-treatment or have met your deductible, and the cost is manageable |
| Medicaid, and CHIP for children | Free or low cost, if you qualify | Apply any time of year | Your household income is now low |
Deadlines and Marketplace rules: HealthCare.gov. COBRA cost limit: U.S. Department of Labor; election and payment periods: the Labor Department’s employee’s guide to COBRA. The $833 figure is KFF’s 2026 average single premium, $9,804 a year, at 102%, divided by 12 (KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey).
Start with the Marketplace quote
Losing job-based coverage opens a Special Enrollment Period. You have 60 days from the loss to apply, and coverage can start the first day of the next month (HealthCare.gov).
The quote depends on the income you enter. Marketplace savings use your expected household income for the coverage year, not last year’s, and unemployment compensation counts (HealthCare.gov). Add up three things: pay already earned this year, the unemployment you expect, and anything you’ll earn once a new job starts.
When you apply, the Marketplace also tells you whether your household qualifies for Medicaid or CHIP instead.
COBRA: same plan, about six times the paycheck deduction
COBRA keeps you on your old plan, usually for 18 months, at employers with 20 or more workers (Department of Labor). In KFF’s 2026 survey, workers paid 18% of the cost of single coverage and employers paid the rest. Under COBRA the plan can bill you the full premium plus 2%, about $833 a month on an average single plan.
If you’re partway through treatment, or you’ve already paid much of this year’s deductible, keeping the same plan can beat a cheaper premium that starts your deductible over. For each option, add the premiums for the months you expect to need it to the deductible you’d still owe, then compare the totals; the plan documents also list each one’s out-of-pocket maximum.
The COBRA election window is at least 60 days, and if you elect, coverage may reach back to the day the old coverage ended, depending on the plan’s rules, which your COBRA notice spells out (Department of Labor).
Don’t plan to switch from COBRA later
Choosing COBRA and then dropping it a few months later doesn’t count as losing coverage, so it won’t reopen the Marketplace until open enrollment (HealthCare.gov). The two clocks are separate, and the one to beat is the Marketplace’s: 60 days from the day job-based coverage ends. If you’ve already signed up for COBRA and are still inside that 60-day window, HealthCare.gov suggests checking whether you can still switch.
Medicaid and CHIP
You can apply for Medicaid and CHIP any time of year. Income limits differ by state, and some states have expanded Medicaid to cover adults below a set income level (HealthCare.gov). The same page lets you enter household size, state and income to see whether you might qualify. Check it even if you never qualified while you were working.
Put the premium in your runway math
At about $833 a month, COBRA can cut deep into savings: with $9,000 saved and $3,000 of other essentials, it shortens the runway from three months to about 2.3. Add your chosen premium to your monthly essentials, then work out your runway.