COBRA - Continued Group Health Plan

In New York, short-term health care policies are not popular anymore. Employers are starting to offer their employees COBRA insurance that lasts for a minimum of 18 months.

COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act which is a federal implemented by the Department of Labor, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. This program allows the employee and their family with continuous health care coverage except for these reasons:

For the employees:

* Loss of employment due to voluntary or involuntary reasons (excluding grave misconduct);
* Reduction in working hours;
* Letting the employer know that the employee can no longer go back to work from a Family or Medical Leave (due to life events like death and disability

For the employees' spouses:

* The employees' loss of employment be it voluntary or involuntary (except for gross misconduct);
* Reduction in the covered employee's working hours;
* Death of the covered employee;
* Divorce or any legal separation from the covered employee;
* Covered employee's voluntary abolishment of group health coverage due to application in Medicare.

The qualifying factors of the employee's dependent children to the COBRA continued group health coverage go the same with the spouse's qualifications. Another qualifying event is the loss of dependent child status due to reaching the maximum age for coverage, marriage, or completion of schooling.

So how long does a group health coverage last?

How long the coverage will last is dependent on the qualifying event that placed the individual under the COBRA program.

* Termination of employment (except for term of gross misconduct) =18 months
* Reduction in hours worked =18 months
* Death of the Employee = 36 months
* Medicare Entitlement of the Employee = 36 months after date of entitlement to Medicare or 18 months (29 months if there is a disability extension) after the covered employee's employment termination or reduction of working hours.
* Divorce or Legal Separation = 36 months
* Dependent Child losing eligibility under the Group Health Plan = 36 months

How much will COBRA cost through a Group Coverage?

You need to pay the entire amount of the the COBRA policy. Including the percentage that used to be paid for by your employer. 2 percent administration fee may be added to the cost of yoru premium. Your premium price can be expected to be as much as 102%. In the 11 month extension due disability condition, it can reach up to 150 percent of the employer's monthly cost by the health insurance carrier.