Losing employer coverage: your real options.

Find three dates and write them down: the exact date your group coverage ends, the last day of your COBRA election window, and the last day of your marketplace special enrollment period. Everything else follows from those.

Then get the private-coverage question answered early, because it's the only path with an approval step. Applying immediately costs nothing and tells you whether it's even an option before the other deadlines close.

That's one of its genuine strengths. Because a COBRA election is generally retroactive to the day your group plan ended, you can usually apply for private coverage first and elect COBRA only if the application doesn't go your way.

Verify the dates on your own election notice before relying on this — the windows are strict and there's no grace once they close.

Then check the marketplace first, seriously. Premium tax credits are based on your expected income for the coverage year, not last year's. A household that never qualified while employed may qualify comfortably after a job loss.

If that's your situation, we'll tell you the marketplace is your better deal. It usually is.

Then you're looking at a defined gap, and the answer is usually the cheapest thing that covers a catastrophe: a short-term plan, or COBRA if you're mid-treatment or close to your deductible.

Confirm the new employer's waiting period in writing. "First of the month following 30 days" can mean six weeks uncovered, not two.

Financially it's a gamble on nothing happening, and the odds are usually in your favor — right up until they aren't. A single emergency admission can outrun several years of premiums.

The practical risk is also forward-looking: a condition that turns up during an uninsured gap becomes a pre-existing condition for underwriting purposes afterward, which narrows your options later.