COBRA Rights

Continuing Health Care Coverage

After your eligibility for group health care coverage ends, you may be able to purchase continued medical and dental, on an individual basis, for a period of time under a federal law known as the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA).

Active Employee Plan

Click here for the 2010 COBRA monthly premium rates.

Retired Employee Plan

Click here for the 2010 COBRA monthly premium rates.

COBRA Qualifying Events

You have the right to continue coverage under COBRA if you have one of the following qualifying events. The duration of COBRA coverage available to you depends on the specific event.

Qualifying Event	Individuals Eligible for COBRA	Duration of COBRA Coverage
Your termination of employment Your reduced working hours	Employee Spouse Dependent child	18 months from the date Active plan coverage ends
Your death Your divorce or legal separation	Spouse Dependent child	36 months from the date Active plan coverage ends
Loss of dependent child status	Child	36 months from the date Active plan coverage ends

COBRA Extensions

The eighteen (18) month COBRA period may be extended up to twenty-nine (29) months in the event you are disabled according to the Social Security Administration. Additional information about the twenty-nine (29) month COBRA period is available from your insurance carrier.

If another qualifying event takes place during the eighteen (18) month continuation period that would entitle your dependents to a longer period of continued coverage, the COBRA period for your dependents may be extended. At the most, however, coverage cannot be extended more than thirty-six (36) months.

COBRA Election

To continue coverage, the insured person must complete a COBRA continuation enrollment form within sixty (60) days after group coverage terminates. The COBRA participant must pay the required monthly costs for the continuation of coverage. If you have any questions or need COBRA enrollment forms, contact the Office of Group Insurance at ogi@adm.idaho.gov.

NOTE: The insured person is responsible for notifying the State within thirty (30) days of a divorce or legal separation or when a dependent child ceases to be dependent as defined by the plan.

Termination of COBRA

COBRA coverage will end on the earliest of the following dates:

At the end of the applicable eighteen (18), twenty-nine (29) or thirty-six (36) months of coverage continuation,
The date the required contributions are no longer made,
The date the COBRA participant becomes entitled to Medicare,
The date the COBRA participant becomes covered by any other group health plan-if the new plan does not exclude or limit the person's coverage for pre-existing conditions as a result of employment, re-employment or marriage, or
The date the State terminates health care coverage for all employees.