Workers who lose job-based health coverage have 60 days to elect COBRA continuation coverage and 45 more days after electing to make the first premium payment, according to the Labor Department. The two windows run back to back, and the second is the more forgiving one, because the first payment can cover months of coverage that have already passed. A worker who elects on the last day of the first window still has a month and a half to pay.
The 60 days are measured from the later of two dates: the day coverage ends or the day the plan provides its election notice. Because the plan controls when that notice goes out, the clock can start after the last day on the old insurance card. Spouses and children who lose coverage along with a worker fall under the same rules.
How the 60-day election window is counted
The Labor Department’s consumer guide to COBRA says a person has 60 days to enroll, and that the count begins with the later of the coverage-end date or the date the election notice is provided or mailed. The right belongs to the employee, a spouse or former spouse and dependent children who were covered the day before the event that ended the coverage.
Federal law sets the floor. Under 29 U.S.C. 1165, the election period must begin no later than the date coverage ends, last at least 60 days and end no earlier than 60 days after the plan sends the required notice. A plan can allow longer. It cannot allow shorter.
The notice has deadlines of its own. Under the Labor Department’s election-notice rule, a plan administrator must send the notice within 14 days of learning about the qualifying event, and an employer that also administers its own plan has 44 days from the event, or from the loss of coverage if the plan uses that trigger. A worker at an employer that runs its own plan can wait more than six weeks for the paperwork.
Anyone whose employer coverage is ending, or who is on a spouse’s or parent’s plan that is ending, has four dates to pin down: the last day of coverage, the day the election notice arrives, the 60th day after the later of those two, and the day the first payment falls due. Electing carries no payment with it, which gives a worker the full window to price COBRA against a spouse’s plan, a marketplace plan or a new job’s waiting period before saying yes.
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The 45-day first payment
Electing and paying are separate steps. Under the Treasury’s COBRA premium rule, a plan cannot require payment for any period of coverage earlier than 45 days after the date of the election. A worker who elects on day 10 and one who elects on day 59 each get the full 45 days, counted from their own election date.
The Labor Department says that first payment can cover several months of retroactive coverage. A worker whose coverage ended on the last day of one month, elects in the second month and pays inside the 45 days is billed for every month since, in a single check, and claims from those weeks fall under the plan once the money arrives.
The same rule has a sharp edge. The Labor Department lists failing to pay premiums on time as one of the ways COBRA coverage ends early, alongside becoming covered by another group health plan or becoming entitled to Medicare after electing. The plan must then send a notice that explains the end date and the reason.
Later payments run on a shorter leash. The Treasury rule treats a premium as timely when it is paid within 30 days after the first day of the coverage period, so a month that starts Dec. 1 is covered by a payment made through Dec. 31. It also counts a payment as made when it is sent, not when the plan receives it, which makes the postmark or the electronic confirmation the proof.
What the 102 percent cap means in dollars
A plan can charge up to 102 percent of the applicable premium, the same Treasury rule says. The applicable premium is the plan’s full cost of the coverage, including the share an employer paid while the worker was on the payroll. The COBRA bill is therefore the whole cost plus 2 percent, not the payroll deduction that used to appear on a pay stub.
Take a family plan that costs $2,000 a month in total. The cap works out to $2,040 a month, so a first check covering two months of back coverage is $4,080 and one covering three months is $6,120. That is the cash due within 45 days of a decision made inside 60, at a moment when the paycheck has usually stopped.
Which employers’ plans fall under COBRA
The Labor Department says COBRA applies to group health plans of private-sector employers and unions with 20 or more employees, and to state and local government plans. Federal government plans and church plans are excluded. Workers at smaller employers should ask the plan administrator in writing what continuation rights apply, because the federal COBRA clocks may not be the ones that govern.
The right also depends on being covered the day before the qualifying event. A spouse or child who was not on the plan that day does not gain COBRA rights from the worker’s job loss, and an event counts only if it causes the person to lose coverage under the plan.
The dates stack in a fixed order. The envelope or portal record that shows when the notice was provided fixes the start of the 60 days, the election date fixes the start of the 45, and the postmark on the first check is the proof of payment. A worker who writes all four dates on the notice itself has the whole schedule in one place.
Is a COBRA election notice sitting unopened?
COBRA dates are fixed by the calendar. A missed election ends the right to the coverage, and a late first payment can end it after the election was made, at the moment a household is already absorbing a lost paycheck and a premium bill that runs at the full cost of the plan.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
