When you lose job-based coverage, the plan administrator has to send you a document called the COBRA election notice. It is the piece of paper that starts your clock. Most people read the monthly figure on it, decide it is unaffordable, and put it down — without noticing that the same notice contains the two dates that decide whether they end up with a coverage gap.
This notice is not a bill and not an enrolment. Receiving it does not put you on COBRA. You are only enrolled once you return the election form and pay the first premium.
Who Sends It and When
Two notices exist and people mix them up. The general notice arrives when you first join an employer plan, explaining COBRA exists. The election notice is the one that matters: it arrives after a qualifying event — you were laid off, you quit, your hours dropped below the threshold, or you aged off a parent’s employer plan.
The employer has 30 days to tell the plan administrator the qualifying event happened. The administrator then has 14 days to send you the election notice. So the letter can legitimately land about six weeks after your last day, which is why it so often arrives when people have already assumed they have no options.
The Two Dates That Actually Matter
The clock on your election notice
| Window | Length | Runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Election | 60 days | Later of coverage-end date or notice date |
| First payment | 45 days | The date you elect |
| Marketplace special enrolment | 60 days | The date coverage ended |
Both windows run from the later of the date coverage ended or the date the notice was sent. Miss the 60-day election window and COBRA is gone permanently — there is no appeal and no late enrolment.
What the Notice Contains, Section by Section
Every election notice covers the same ground, though the layout varies by administrator:
Sections of a COBRA election notice
| Section | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Qualifying event | Why you became eligible, and the date it happened |
| Qualified beneficiaries | Everyone named who may elect separately |
| Coverage offered | The identical plan you had, not a reduced version |
| Premium | Full cost plus up to 2% administration |
| Election deadline | The hard 60-day date |
| Payment terms | Where and by when the first payment is due |
| Duration | Usually 18 months; 36 in some circumstances |
A Worked Example
The figures below are illustrative, not a quote. They show how the arithmetic works on a notice for a single person whose employer had been paying most of the premium.
Illustrative single-person example
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| What you paid as an employee | $140 / month |
| What the employer was paying | $560 / month |
| Full premium | $700 / month |
| Administrative charge (2%) | $14 / month |
| COBRA premium on the notice | $714 / month |
The jump is not a penalty or a markup. It is the employer’s share becoming yours, plus the 2% administrative charge the rules permit. Nothing about the coverage changes — same network, same plan, same deductible position — only who pays.
The Retroactive Rule Most People Miss
COBRA is retroactive to the day your old coverage ended. You have 60 days to elect and a further 45 days after electing to make the first payment, and during that window you are technically uncovered but still able to trigger cover by electing.
In practice this is an option worth holding. If nothing happens medically during those weeks, you can let the window close and take a marketplace plan instead. If something serious does happen, you can elect COBRA and have it pay back to your termination date. Very few people realise the notice buys them that choice.
Before You Decide
Losing job-based coverage is a qualifying life event, which opens a 60-day special enrolment period on the marketplace. That window runs alongside your COBRA election window, not after it, so the two decisions are made at the same time. If your household income dropped when the job ended, a marketplace plan with a premium tax credit is frequently cheaper than COBRA for the same person — and the credit is calculated on the income you expect this year, not what you earned before the layoff.
Electing COBRA does not close the marketplace door forever, but voluntarily dropping COBRA mid-stream is not itself a qualifying event. Exhausting it is. That distinction traps people who elect first and reconsider in month three.
When COBRA Runs Out, State by State
The election notice itself runs on federal rules, so the 60-day and 45-day clocks are the same wherever you live. What changes by state is what you move to when COBRA ends — which carriers file there, and what a subsidy is worth against local premiums. Daniel is licensed in these 23 states:
Alabama · Arkansas · Colorado · Florida · Georgia · Illinois · Indiana · Kansas · Maryland · Mississippi · Michigan · Nebraska · Nevada · North Carolina · Ohio · Oklahoma · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Virginia · Wisconsin
One rule is worth repeating because it catches people in every state: exhausting COBRA opens a special enrolment period, cancelling it early does not. Run the full 18 months and you get a 60-day window. Stop paying in month nine and you generally wait for open enrolment.