COBRA

COBRA paystub meaning: Your right to keep the same employer health plan after leaving — up to 18 months, at up to 102% of the full premium you never saw.

Your right to keep the same employer health plan after leaving — up to 18 months, at up to 102% of the full premium you never saw.

COBRA is not an insurance plan. It is a federal right to keep the exact plan you already had, same network, same deductible, after an event that would otherwise end it. What changes is who pays. The Department of Labor limits it to employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year. Smaller employers fall outside federal COBRA, though most states run a "mini-COBRA" continuation law for them. How long you get depends on the event. Losing your job or having your hours cut gives up to 18 months. Divorce or legal separation, the employee's death, the employee becoming entitled to Medicare, or a child aging off the plan give covered dependents up to 36 months. If the Social Security Administration finds you disabled, an 11-month extension takes the 18 months up to 29. The price is where people are blindsided. COBRA lets the plan charge you the whole premium — your old payroll share plus the share your employer was quietly paying — plus a two percent administrative fee, up to 102% of the cost of coverage. During the disability extension months the plan may charge up to 150%. Four deadlines govern everything. You have 60 days to elect. You then have 45 days to make the first payment, which covers you retroactively to the day coverage ended, so there is no gap. Every payment after that has a 30-day grace period. The plan must send your election notice within 14 days of being notified of the qualifying event, or within 44 days of the event when your employer is also the plan administrator. COBRA rarely appears on a pay stub; a third-party administrator usually bills you directly.

Benefit and retirement entries can change taxable wages and take-home pay. Verify eligibility, contribution type, employer matching, annual limits, vesting, and tax treatment against the current plan and payroll records.

When this term appears on a statement, read its label, current amount, year-to-date amount, pay-period context, and any adjacent rate or hours together. Resolve a mismatch with the original issuer or the cited authority rather than changing a record to force a preferred result.