If you just lost a job, the envelope from your former employer's HR department probably arrived with a number that made your stomach drop.
That number is COBRA, the federal law that lets you keep your workplace health plan for up to 18 months after you leave.
The catch: you pay the full premium yourself, plus a small administrative fee.
The average COBRA cost for a single person in 2025 runs roughly $700 to $750 per month for an individual plan, according to benefits industry data.
Family coverage can easily clear $2,000 a month.
That's not because insurers are gouging you — it's because your employer used to cover 70% to 80% of that bill, and now you're picking up the whole thing.
COBRA premiums are based on your old group plan, so they rarely reflect what a similar plan costs on the open market.
A healthy 35-year-old might find a marketplace bronze plan for $350 to $450 a month after subsidies.
The same person on COBRA could be asked for $780.
The gap widens fast for families and older workers.
You generally have 60 days from the date you lose coverage to elect COBRA, and that window is a genuine lifeline.
If you sign up within those 60 days, coverage is retroactive to day one.
Some people use it as a bridge — waiting to see whether a new job's benefits kick in, or whether a marketplace plan gets approved, before committing.
The subsidy question matters more than most people realize.
Enhanced ACA subsidies have been shifting in and out of federal budgets, and when they shrink, marketplace plans get pricier for everyone.
If you qualify for income-based help, an ACA plan often beats COBRA by hundreds per month.
Run the numbers on Healthcare.gov before you mail that election form.
A few practical checks before you decide.
First, ask HR whether your plan had a low deductible you'd already met this year — restarting a fresh deductible elsewhere can cost more than the higher monthly premium saves.
Second, check whether your doctors and prescriptions are covered on any marketplace plan you're considering.
Third, look at short-term or association plans only with real caution, since they can exclude pre-existing conditions and cap payouts.
There's also a quieter option: some employers offer a severance-linked subsidy that covers part of COBRA for a few months.
It's rarely advertised, so it's worth asking directly.
If money is tight, states like California and New York run their own premium assistance programs that can knock down the cost.
The bottom line is that COBRA is often the most expensive route, but not always the wrong one.
It shines when you've already hit your deductible, have ongoing treatment, or need a short bridge of a month or two.
For everyone else, it's worth twenty minutes on the marketplace site before defaulting to the familiar plan.
Our take: treat COBRA as one option on a menu, not the automatic answer.
Final Thoughts
The sticker shock is real, but so are the alternatives — and the 60-day window gives you more breathing room than panic suggests.