Quick answer How much is COBRA insurance? At the latest national average employer premiums (the 2025 federal survey), about $767 a month for one person, about $1,522 for employee-plus-one, and about $2,234 for a family. COBRA costs up to 102% of the full premium: your old share, plus the share your employer was quietly paying, plus a 2% fee. That is roughly five times what came out of the average paycheck for single coverage. Your state runs higher or lower than that, and the table below links the state-by-state numbers. Your exact number is on your election notice, and there are three ways to find it sooner. I educate, you decide.

I'm Dick Tracy, an independent broker licensed in 25 states (NPN 20414610), health insurance only, working with 80+ carriers. I came from the healthcare side of this business, so there's no gag clause on me. Most people have never seen the real price of their employer plan until the COBRA notice lands. Here's the math, what moves the number, the federal rules, and the cheaper doors.

How much does COBRA cost per month?

Cost math, my own arithmetic: national average annual employer premiums for 2025 of $9,025 single, $17,901 employee-plus-one, and $26,281 family, divided by 12, times 1.02. Source: federal MEPS Insurance Component survey (AHRQ), published by KFF State Health Facts: single, employee-plus-one, family. The 102% rule: U.S. Department of Labor.

These are averages, and the totals are my arithmetic from them. Your old plan could be richer or leaner than average, and your notice will have the real figure. Want your own number and the total over the months you actually need? Use my free COBRA Cost Calculator.

A second yardstick, so you can see the averages are not a fluke. KFF's own 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average premium at $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, with workers paying $1,440 and $6,850 of that. Run the same math and COBRA comes out to about $793 a month single and about $2,294 a month family. That's my arithmetic, not a KFF figure. Either survey lands in the same neighborhood: roughly $750 to $800 a month for one person, roughly $2,200 to $2,300 for a family.

Why is COBRA so expensive?

The plan didn't get more expensive. You just started paying all of it. While you were working, the average employer paid $7,208 of that $9,025 single premium and the worker paid $1,817. That's about $151 a month out of the paycheck. On COBRA the same plan, same card, same network, is about $767 a month. Roughly five times the deduction, because the employer's share is now yours, plus the 2% fee for the privilege.

Family coverage stings the same way. The average worker paid $7,314 a year of the $26,281 family premium, about $610 a month. On COBRA that becomes about $2,234 a month, more than three and a half times the paycheck deduction. The 2025 KFF employer survey also found premiums rose 5% for single coverage and 6% for family coverage in one year, and COBRA is 102% of whatever the plan costs now, so the bill tracks every increase.

What drives your COBRA number

• The plan you had. A rich low-deductible PPO costs more than a lean high-deductible plan, so its COBRA price is higher. COBRA is the plan you had, at that plan's price. You can only switch to a cheaper plan on the same employer's menu at the employer's next open enrollment, and only if the employer offers more than one plan, per the U.S. Department of Labor's COBRA guide.
• Who's on it. Single, employee-plus-one, or family. Each person covered by the plan has an independent right to elect, per the U.S. Department of Labor, so a spouse can take COBRA alone while the employee shops elsewhere, or the other way around.
• Your state. Single-coverage employer premiums run about 21% above the national average in New York and about 5% below it in Texas, by my arithmetic from the same federal survey. The family gap is smaller in New York, about 13% above. COBRA follows the premium.
• Your employer's size and industry. The premium underneath COBRA is whatever your employer negotiated, which varies with employer size and industry, not a market rate you can shop.
• The 2% fee, and sometimes 50%. The plan can charge up to 102% of the full premium. During an 11-month disability extension the plan can charge up to 150%, per the Department of Labor.

How much is COBRA in your state?

Same math, state averages from the same federal survey. The figures below are the headline numbers on my state pages, so they match wherever you read them. Each link opens that state's page, including its own continuation law for employers too small for federal COBRA.

Not on the list? The 102% math works anywhere. Take the full monthly premium for your tier, multiply by 1.02, and you have it. Or use the calculator.

Three ways to find your exact COBRA price

1. Ask HR for the total premium. Ask for the full monthly premium for your tier, both shares combined, and multiply by 1.02. Simple as that.
2. Check your W-2, Box 12, code DD. That figure is the total annual cost of your employer health coverage, your share and theirs. Divide by 12, multiply by 1.02, and you've got a close estimate. Employers that file 250 or more W-2s are required to report it; smaller employers may leave it blank. Source: IRS.
3. Read the election notice. It states the exact premium and the deadline. That's the number that counts.

The federal rules that set the clock

Who gets it. Federal COBRA applies to group health plans at private-sector employers with 20 or more employees, and at state and local governments, per the U.S. Department of Labor. You qualify if you lost coverage because your job ended for any reason other than gross misconduct, or because your hours got cut. A spouse or child also qualifies if they lose coverage because of the employee's death, divorce or legal separation, the employee becoming entitled to Medicare, or a child aging off the plan.

How long. 18 months after a job loss or a cut in hours. 36 months for the spouse-and-child events above. If someone in the family is disabled under Social Security rules before the 60th day of COBRA, the 18 months stretches to 29, and the plan can charge up to 150% of the premium for the extra 11 months. Yes, 150%. A plan can offer more than the law requires, never less.

The deadlines. You have at least 60 days to elect, counted from the day your coverage ends or the day the election notice is provided, whichever is later. Then at least 45 days after you elect to make the first payment. Every later payment has a 30-day grace period. Sounds generous? Remember that coverage runs from the day your job plan ended, not the day you elect, per the Department of Labor's COBRA guide, so that first payment can cover more than one month. Budget for it.

One trap. If you start COBRA and later just stop paying, that doesn't open a special enrollment window on the marketplace, per healthcare.gov. Losing your job-based coverage opens a 60-day window. Running COBRA all the way to the end opens another. Quitting it in the middle does not. Decide on purpose, not by default.

Under 20 employees? Your state may have a mini-COBRA

Federal COBRA doesn't reach employers with fewer than 20 employees. Many states fill that gap with their own continuation laws, which the Department of Labor calls mini-COBRA. They usually apply only to fully insured plans, not self-funded ones, and the length, the price cap, and the deadline to elect all vary by state: nine months in Texas and Pennsylvania, 18 months in Florida, 36 months in California and New York, and up to 36 months in New Jersey, with price caps from 102% to 115% of the premium. The state table above links the details for each. For any other state, your state insurance department has the rule, or ask me and I'll look it up.

Is COBRA worth that price?

Sometimes, and I'll say it plainly. If you're mid-treatment, pregnant, scheduled for surgery, or you've already met a big deductible this year, the continuity is worth the money. Same if you had a serious diagnosis in the last five years: take the guaranteed-issue coverage for now, COBRA or a marketplace plan, and don't let anyone talk you out of it. For a healthy person or family, COBRA is usually the most expensive option, because the price is set by the whole group, sick and healthy alike, and you can't be priced on your own health.

Here are the other doors, honestly. In most states a healthy person can buy a medically underwritten private plan, which means a carrier asks about your health and prices you on the answers instead of on the sickest person in a pool, usually with a true PPO network. Another door almost nobody mentions is merging into a pre-established ERISA group plan: group rates, a true PPO, and a policy you own and take to the next job. Some people layer a lean medical plan with accident and gap coverage on top and come out well under the COBRA number. The marketplace is one more tool: it takes everyone at the same price with no health questions, and losing job coverage opens a 60-day window to enroll mid year with a premium tax credit if your income for the year qualifies. If your income will be modest, a subsidized marketplace plan or Medicaid may honestly be the best deal. The trade-offs: many marketplace plans use HMO or EPO networks that are narrower than a typical employer PPO, and the subsidy is built on income you have to estimate for the year ahead. I walk through every door, including when COBRA wins, in the alternatives to COBRA and the COBRA versus marketplace head-to-head. Use the 60 days to price them all. Pack the parachute before the plane goes down.

Common questions about COBRA cost

Who you'll be talking to: me, Richard "Dick" Tracy. Real name, real job.

Independent broker, health insurance only · NPN 20414610 · Licensed in 25 states · 80+ carriers · Buffalo, NY

No call center, and no lead form that sells your name to ten agencies. The person who answers 716-503-1113 is the same person in this photo. I educate, you decide.

Your Insurance Detective is a trade name of Your Broker DT Inc, independently contracted with USA Benefits Group. More about me and how I work