How to Determine if You are Eligible for COBRA Health Insurance
When people become unemployed they run the risk of losing their health insurance coverage. COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) was originally passed by congress in 1986 to provide continuation of health insurance coverage for people who become unemployed. The stimulus package passed by the Obama administration has increased and extended certain health insurance benefits provided through COBRA.
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Instructions
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To be eligible for COBRA health insurance coverage, you must have been enrolled in your employer's health plan when you were employed, and the health plan must still be in effect for active employees. Additionally, there are three main elements used to determine if someone is eligible to receive COBRA health insurance coverage.
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Plan Coverage
To determine if you are eligible for COBRA, you must first look at your employer's health insurance coverage. Group health plans for employers with twenty or more employees, on the majority of its typical business days in the previous calendar year, qualify for COBRA health insurance coverage.
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Qualified Beneficiaries
To be eligible for COBRA, you have to be a qualified beneficiary, which is an individual covered by a group health plan on the day before a qualifying event. A qualified beneficiary can be an employee, employee's spouse, or an employee's dependent child. There are additional instances where an individual may be a qualified beneficiary.
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Qualifying Events
To determine if you are eligible for COBRA health insurance coverage, you must determine if you have had a qualifying event. Qualifying events are specific events that would cause an individual to lose their health insurance coverage, such as termination of employment or reduction of work hours.
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To determine if you are eligible for COBRA health insurance coverage and benefits, you may want to look in the Resources section below for links that will provide more information. There are additional situations that lead to qualified beneficiaries, and other situations that can be qualifying events. Read more about COBRA health insurance at these links to see if you are eligible to get COBRA coverage.
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Resources
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