Lost Your Job Health Insurance: What to Do Now

Your 60-day window: the Special Enrollment Period

When you lose employer coverage — layoff, resignation, or reduced hours — the Marketplace gives you 60 days from the day that coverage ends to pick a new plan. You don't have to wait for the November Open Enrollment.

Key detail: the clock starts when the coverage ends, not on your last day of work. Some employers keep insurance active through the end of the month — confirm the exact date with HR, because it defines your window.

• Enroll within the 60 days and the new plan usually starts the first day of the following month.
• Miss the window and you'll wait for Open Enrollment or another qualifying event.
• Also qualifying: marriage, birth or adoption, moving to a new coverage area, and losing Medicaid.

COBRA vs. Marketplace: which makes sense

COBRA lets you keep the exact same plan from work, but you pay 100% of the premium plus a 2% admin fee. In practice that's often $600 to $1,800 a month for a family, because the employer no longer contributes.

With a Marketplace plan, the subsidy is based on your estimated income for the current year. If you just lost your job, that income likely dropped — which can mean very low or even $0 monthly premiums on Silver or Bronze plans.

Estimating your income after a job loss

The Marketplace asks for the income you expect to earn for the full calendar year: what you already earned before the job loss, plus a spouse's income, self-employment, or unemployment benefits.

A common mistake is reporting only your old salary (too high for a subsidy) or reporting zero while ignoring what you already earned (too low, and in Texas that can incorrectly route adults to Medicaid, which has very restrictive rules). We help you estimate the right figure so you get the maximum subsidy with no tax-time surprises.

What you need to enroll

The process takes 20 to 40 minutes with an advisor, and coverage can start the first day of the following month.

• The exact end date of your employer coverage (HR letter or email).
• Social Security numbers for everyone enrolling (or eligible immigration status).
• An estimate of household income for the year.
• A list of your doctors and medications so we can verify the plan covers them.

Mistakes we see every week

The most expensive: taking COBRA on autopilot without comparing, and overpaying thousands for coverage a subsidized plan would have provided for far less.

Second: not updating your income when you land a new job. If your income rises, the subsidy should be adjusted during the year to avoid a large tax reconciliation.

Third: mixing up the dates. The 60-day window runs from when employer coverage ends, not from the layoff. Miss it and your options shrink dramatically.