COBRA vs Marketplace plan comparison

Because COBRA continues the plan you already had, including the deductible you have already paid down this year. A new Marketplace plan starts a fresh deductible at zero.

Mid-year, with a deductible largely met, that carry-over can outweigh a lower Marketplace premium.

Both clocks run about 60 days. You generally have 60 days to elect COBRA, and losing job-based coverage opens a 60-day Special Enrollment Period on the Marketplace.

A loss of coverage usually also lets you apply in the 60 days before it happens, which prevents a gap.

Dropping COBRA voluntarily mid-year does not by itself open a Special Enrollment Period. Exhausting COBRA at the end of its term does.

So the choice is more binding than it looks. Worth running the comparison before electing, not after.

Continuity of care. If you are mid-treatment, keeping the same plan, network and prior authorisations can matter more than the cost difference.

It also cannot price the specific drugs and providers you use; that check is worth doing before deciding.

No. It is an estimate computed from published plan-year figures and the details you type in. It is not an offer of coverage or a determination of eligibility.

Your final premium and eligibility are confirmed at enrollment on HealthCare.gov or with the carrier.

From the HHS poverty guidelines (2025) and the Marketplace affordability schedule for plan year 2026. They are plan-year stamped and reviewed each January, when the federal government publishes the new ones.

If a figure here does not match what you see elsewhere, check which plan year the other source is quoting first.

Nothing. Carriers pay a commission when a plan is issued, and that commission is already built into the plan price whether you use an agent or not.

Buying the same plan on your own does not make it cheaper — it just means nobody checked your doctors and prescriptions first, and nobody picks up the phone in March when something goes wrong.

No, and no agency does. We are independent, which means we compare across the carriers listed on this site rather than representing a single one — but that is not the same as offering every plan on the market.

We do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 8 organizations which offer 72 products in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.