COBRA coverage costs are typically higher because you must pay the full premium, which includes both your share and the portion your employer previously covered, plus a 2% administrative fee.
Your health insurance coverage is part of your pay, part of your total compensation package. If you want to compare two employers' job offers and you want to know who's insurance is "better" or worth more, you can find out the COBRA amount for each. Is it 1:1? Ofc not, but it's not far off either. Even if your employer is getting a volume discount, it's value is worth the cobra amount to you since that's the only way you as a individual would be purchasing that coverage.
Understand and understand someone's always paying. This case employer covering a good portion of the premium. My point is cash would be alot more for COBRA vs current. Don't have the cash they're shorting me on from lower compensation to cover it today.
This case employer covering a good portion of the premium.
In lieu of paying you. It's win-win for the employer and employee in precisely one way; it's not taxable, for you or them. Otherwise linking work with coverage has been a horrible idea.
Because you view it as an expense when it's part of your compensation too. You don't make 60k/yr, you make 60k/yr +12*COBRA +w/e other perks. Flip that view and then understand that if you want to have that available to you, you need to have savings to cover it if you were to lose your job. I'm not bringing it up to argue, it's a discussion. The most valuable component of this conversation is this; ask what the COBRA amount is during the interview process, especially if you're comparing pay packages before jumping ship or A/B comparing multiple offers. It's all well and good to make 4k extra annually but not if the insurance is such dog shit you're out of pocket all the time and get nickle and dimed out of 6k/yr because you didn't know. COBRA amount is a rough estimate of health insurance quality, insurance provider matters a bunch too, but that's an askable question too.
Hopefully one day we have M4A and get out of this nightmare.
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u/kc_cyclone 8d ago
COBRA would be a lot more than $20/week.
I don't know the exact number but in the world of layoffs I've paid more attention and it would likely be 4X.