The Sixty-Day COBRA Countdown

After a qualifying event (a layoff, for most people) a covered employee has sixty days to elect COBRA continuation coverage, counted from the later of the date coverage would otherwise end or the date the plan administrator's election notice is provided. Missing the window closes it — there is no statutory late-election right, though electing at day fifty-nine still restores coverage back to the day it lapsed.

For a qualifying event that is a termination of employment or a reduction in hours, COBRA coverage generally runs eighteen months from the qualifying event. A second qualifying event during that period (for example a divorce, or a dependent aging out) can extend a spouse's or dependent's own coverage further, and a Social Security disability determination can extend the original eighteen months for the disabled qualified beneficiary and their family. The extensions are conditional on specific notices being given on time — they are not automatic.

Under COBRA the qualified beneficiary may be required to pay the entire premium for coverage — the share the employer used to cover, plus the employee's own share — plus an administrative charge the statute permits on top. The plan is the same plan with the same network; only who pays for how much of it changes. This is stated here as a mechanism, not a number: the underlying group premium and permitted surcharge are set by the plan and change plan to plan and year to year, so no figure is asserted here — check the actual COBRA election notice for the dollar amount that applies.