Lost your job coverage? Here’s how to decide, fast.

Published July 10, 2026 · By Erik Roti, Options.Health

Losing job-based coverage — whether from a layoff, a reduced schedule, or leaving a job voluntarily — is a qualifying event that opens two doors at once: you can elect COBRA to keep your exact same employer plan, or you can shop MNsure and the individual marketplace for something new. Both generally come with a 60-day enrollment window, and picking the wrong one, or missing the window entirely, can leave you without coverage.

What COBRA actually gives you

COBRA lets you continue the identical group health plan you had through your employer — same network, same deductible accumulation — for up to 18 months (sometimes 36, depending on the qualifying event). The catch is cost: you now pay the full premium your employer was covering, plus up to a 2% administrative fee, with no employer contribution offsetting it. For many households that’s a jump from a few hundred dollars a month to well over a thousand.

What the marketplace gives you instead

A MNsure or marketplace plan starts fresh — a new deductible, a possibly different network, and a new set of plan options across metal tiers. The upside is that losing job-based coverage qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period, and depending on your household income for the year, you may qualify for a premium tax credit that brings the sticker price down substantially. For anyone whose income drops along with the job loss, that subsidy can make a marketplace plan considerably cheaper than COBRA.

The deductible question people miss

If you or a family member has already hit a meaningful chunk of this year’s deductible on the employer plan, COBRA lets you keep that progress since it’s the same plan and same plan year. Switching to a marketplace plan generally means starting the deductible over from zero, even mid-year. If you’re in the middle of a course of treatment or expect more medical costs this year, that reset is worth weighing against any premium savings.

Network continuity matters too

COBRA guarantees you keep the same doctors and specialists you’ve already been seeing, since nothing about the plan changes except who’s paying for it. A marketplace plan might use a narrower or different network depending on the carrier and metal tier you choose — worth checking before you assume a marketplace plan is automatically the better deal.