Finally Retired at 64 - 2 Years Later Than Planned

[Exchme]

If they are subject to COBRA they must, by law, notify you within 30 days. Again, how many employees?

Yes, if I recall correctly, the company has 30 days to let the COBRA insurer know, they have 15 days to let you know and then you have to elect to take the COBRA and pay before 60 days from the end of the regular policy. When I retired, the company did nothing and didn't return calls due to their internal turmoil. I finally got a human in Human Resources and informed them they were in violation of federal law since 40 days had gone by and the insurer had not been notified. It immediately went to a VP's desk and was fixed the next day and they gave me an extension on when I could elect to take the coverage. I didn't use the extension, just wanted to get the COBRA in force.

If you have other income or are doing big Roth conversions, COBRA may be cheaper than unsubsidized ACA, but if you can control your MAGI to get an ACA subsidy, ACA may well be cheaper.

 

[ImThinkin2019]

Yes, if I recall correctly, the company has 30 days to let the COBRA insurer know, they have 15 days to let you know and then you have to elect to take the COBRA and pay before 60 days from the end of the regular policy. When I retired, the company did nothing and didn't return calls due to their internal turmoil. I finally got a human in Human Resources and informed them they were in violation of federal law since 40 days had gone by and the insurer had not been notified. It immediately went to a VP's desk and was fixed the next day and they gave me an extension on when I could elect to take the coverage. I didn't use the extension, just wanted to get the COBRA in force.

If you have other income or are doing big Roth conversions, COBRA may be cheaper than unsubsidized ACA, but if you can control your MAGI to get an ACA subsidy, ACA may well be cheaper.

Thanks for this. We eventually got a cobra notification about 30 days after I was terminated. This is after we already signed up for subsidized SECURE Act insurance.

Now we are shopping for next year, which will not be subsidized since we will be doing Roth rollovers. I start Medicare in July 2022 and my DW in May 2023. So not too long to wait.