COBRA continuation coverage
The right to keep an employer's health insurance for a period after the event that would otherwise end it — including the death of the employee.
What it means
COBRA lets covered dependants continue the same group health plan after a qualifying event. The death of the covered employee is one of those events, and it usually opens a longer continuation period than most.
The coverage is identical; the price is not. The family pays the whole premium, including the part the employer used to pay, plus a small administrative charge.
There are deadlines on both sides: the plan must send an election notice, and the family has a limited window to elect and to pay.
Why it matters
A surviving spouse and children can lose health coverage within weeks of a death, at exactly the moment nobody is thinking about insurance.
The election window is short and the notice often arrives among a great deal of other post. It is worth watching for rather than waiting for.
When you are likely to meet it
- When the person who died carried the family's health insurance.
- When an election notice arrives from a plan administrator.
- When comparing continuation against a marketplace plan.
How this varies by state
Several states extend continuation rights to employers too small for the federal rule to reach, on their own terms.
Related terms
Official sources
The authority this page describes, at the agency that publishes it. Sahvelo does not restate a rule from a secondary source.