Your 60-day election window · real filed 2026 rates · nothing you enter is stored
COBRA, or your own plan? Compute it before you sign.
The election notice in your hand starts a roughly 60-day clock, and electing COBRA is generally a one-way door — no switching to a marketplace plan until open enrollment, COBRA exhaustion, or another qualifying event. Before you decide, see the honest 12 months: COBRA's premium against your county's filed marketplace rates, with the premium tax credit modeled.
Nothing you enter here is stored — no account, no email, no lead list. Heads up before you sign anything: electing COBRA is generally a one-way door until open enrollment, COBRA exhaustion, or another qualifying event.
Three rules decide this. Most people learn them too late.
The one-way door
Electing COBRA generally forecloses switching to a marketplace plan — and starting a premium tax credit — until the next open enrollment, until your COBRA is exhausted, or until another qualifying event. Dropping it early or missing a payment does not open a special enrollment period. Decide once, with the math in front of you.
The two 60-day clocks
Your 60-day election window runs from the later of your election notice or your coverage ending — the deadline on your notice controls. Losing job-based coverage also opens its own 60-day special enrollment period on the marketplace. Do nothing, and both doors close until open enrollment.
The credit COBRA blocks
Being offered COBRA doesn't block the premium tax credit; enrolling in COBRA does. Turn the offer down and buy through the marketplace instead, and any credit you qualify for applies from day one. General federal rules — HealthCare.gov publishes the official version; this is not tax advice.
If you do leave COBRA, don't pick the next plan by premium.
The same discipline this tool applies to COBRA applies inside the marketplace: the lowest sticker price is often the wrong 12-month answer. We measured it, deterministically, across every filed 2026 plan in every Georgia county.
$548/yr
Median annual cost of picking by lowest premium instead of lowest simulated 12-month total (Georgia, 2026 filings)
57%
Share of simulated county-profile-age cells where the lowest-premium plan was not the cheapest full year
$2,492/yr
90th-percentile annual cost of the premium-only pick across the same cells
Deterministic simulation across 4,293 county-profile-age cells, snapshot snapshot_8827361338bd…, sources as of 2026-06-03. Full methodology: plan-choice statistics · how we price plans
The questions every election notice raises.
Can I get marketplace subsidies if I was offered COBRA?
Yes — being offered COBRA doesn't block the premium tax credit; enrolling in COBRA does. For the months you're actually on COBRA you generally can't take the credit. Losing job-based coverage is its own 60-day special enrollment period, so you can pick a marketplace plan — with any credit you qualify for — instead of electing COBRA. These are general federal rules, not tax advice; HealthCare.gov has the official version.
What happens if I do nothing?
COBRA doesn't elect itself — nothing is automatic. If you elect within your window and pay, coverage is generally retroactive to the day your group coverage ended, so a short decision gap isn't the same as a coverage gap. But if you let both 60-day clocks run out — the COBRA election window and the marketplace special enrollment period — you generally wait for the next open enrollment, uninsured in the meantime.
Can I switch from COBRA to a marketplace plan later?
Generally not right away — electing COBRA is generally a one-way door. Once enrolled, you can switch to a marketplace plan at the next open enrollment, when your COBRA is exhausted (the full coverage period ends), or with another qualifying event. Voluntarily dropping COBRA early, or losing it for nonpayment, does not open a special enrollment period.
How long do I have to decide?
At least 60 days — the COBRA election window runs from the later of the date your election notice is furnished or the date your coverage ends, and the deadline printed on your own notice controls. Separately, the marketplace special enrollment period runs 60 days from losing job-based coverage (you can also enroll up to 60 days before the loss). COBRA continuation itself generally lasts 18 months, and up to 36 in some situations.
Why is my COBRA premium so much higher than what I paid as an employee?
Because the subsidy left with the job: COBRA charges up to 102% of the full group premium — the share your employer used to pay, plus your share, plus an administration fee of up to 2%. The premium on your election notice is the real price of the plan you had.
Is this tax or legal advice?
No. This page states general federal rules and shows modeled illustrations computed from filed public rate data under labeled assumptions. It is not tax, legal, or insurance advice for your situation, and it is not an eligibility determination — HealthCare.gov and the Department of Labor publish the official rules, and enrollment support is provided by an individually licensed insurance producer.
Sixty days is enough time to do the math once.
Insurf, Inc. is not a licensed insurance agency; enrollment support is provided by an individually licensed insurance producer, who may be compensated by carrier commissions when an enrollment occurs — that compensation is disclosed on estimates, and the comparison's math never varies with compensation. Insurf is not affiliated with or endorsed by any carrier, Georgia Access, or any state, nor by HealthCare.gov or the U.S. Department of Labor. Figures on this page are modeled illustrations from filed public data under the labeled assumptions above — general statements of federal rules, informational only, not an eligibility determination, not an offer of coverage, not a recommendation to elect or decline COBRA or to buy or drop any plan, and not financial, tax, legal, medical, coverage, or insurance advice.