Leaving a job in Miami-Dade: COBRA vs. marketplace vs. a new employer plan

Loss of employer coverage is a qualifying event for a special enrollment period on the ACA marketplace. You usually have 60 days. Miss it, and you are waiting for open enrollment with a gap. Miami-Dade hospitals do not give extra courtesy because the HR packet was confusing.

Get the loss-of-coverage letter. We need the end date, who was covered, and whether the employer is offering COBRA. The letter is the key. A resignation email is not.

COBRA keeps your doctors, your deductible progress, and your formulary — at the employer’s full premium plus a small admin fee. If someone is mid-treatment at a Miami specialist, that continuity can be worth more than a cheaper marketplace plan with a new deductible.

If the household is healthy and income dropped, marketplace with a subsidy often wins on money. We run both. We do not shame COBRA. We price it.

A new job in Doral that starts health on the first of the month after 30 or 60 days is a gap you can see coming. Short-term plans are a blunt tool. Marketplace special enrollment can fill the gap if the dates work. Sometimes COBRA for one month is the boring, correct move.

Bring both offer letters. We will draw the calendar. Health insurance mistakes are calendar mistakes more often than product mistakes.

The same special-enrollment logic applies when a spouse leaves a plan, when a marriage adds a person, or when a child ages off at 26. Florida families mix these events with job changes. Tell us the full household, not just the employee.

A Palmetto Bay household with one W-2 and one 1099 should not enroll as if both still had group cards.

End date of current coverage, zip code, ages, doctors you will not give up, prescriptions, income estimate, and whether anyone is pregnant or mid-authorization. That list is how an advisor finishes in one sitting instead of three.

Start a health quote. This line goes to an expert — on purpose. The form is the start. The network check is the work.