Health insurance is a proverbial minefield of convoluted choices and heavy costs. Making an uninformed decision with it can lead to a lot of frustration, poor coverage, and wasted money.
Instead, let’s look at two major options for healthcare and break down what will work best for you. That way you can make a major choice with confidence.
There are a lot of details between COBRA vs Obamacare, so let’s get right down to it.
Comparing COBRA vs Obamacare
Finding a replacement for your employer-based health insurance boils down to the two major juggernauts of the industry.
You can go for the healthcare provided by https://cobrahealthinsurance.org/ or you can search in the market with Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act. Which one is the right choice? Let’s sort that out.
1. New and Old Health Plans
COBRA acts as an extension of employer-based healthcare. They work as an immediate bridge between the two, making sure nothing changes or shifts.
Obamacare instead focuses on bringing you a few choices in new health care plans. You can’t guarantee any of these to be like your old plan in either cost or coverage.
If you love your old plan and want to keep going, COBRA is a clear winner here. If you need something new, Obamacare may have what you need.
2. Full Premiums and Subsidies
When you go with COBRA, you will need to pay the premiums left over by your plans. Without your employer, this includes the entire premium including a 2% administration fee. Depending on how much your employer covered, that can be a huge increase.
For Obamacare, you will still have a hefty premium, but avoid the administration fee and have an overall lower rate of premium.
In either case, you can get subsidies to help cover these expenses. Subsidies rank off of your income, giving you more assistance the less money you make.
3. Time Windows
You have 60 days after you have lost your employer-based healthcare to decide whether you want COBRA or not. After that time, your options are gone.
Obamacare has a similar enrollment date of 60 days after your loss of healthcare. They also have an annual enrollment period if you had no healthcare at all.
4. Your Duration of Coverage
The design of COBRA is to act as an in-between from one job’s healthcare to the next. Depending on how you lost your healthcare it can go from 18 months to 36 months.
Each Obamacare plan goes per year. Every year you must renew it, though that means that if your current plan goes away by next year, you will need to enroll in a new one. This can put you at the whims of awkward plans.
5. Grace Periods
While neither platform works well with late payments, Obamacare does have a longer grace period than COBRA.
Failure to pay with Obamacare has penalties, but you often can still keep your coverage. With COBRA, your first missed payment cancels your coverage.
The Future Insurance for You
In the match between COBRA vs Obamacare, the winner depends on what you value in your insurance companies. Some of the restrictions may be too much to deal with while some conveniences are well worth the issues.
In big choices like this, it is best to think about your wallet. Healthcare is expensive and being mindful of that expense will better you in the long run.
Speaking of mindful expenses, there are many other topics to help you make good financial choices. Check out our other articles today.
