Going COBRA

Recently a friend of mine and I were sipping iced chai’s at a cute little café a few blocks from my house, and I was talking about how I wasn’t sure what to do with the one month gap I’ll have between leaving my current company and starting school, when she interrupted with:
“So are you going to go COBRA?”
Not sure if this was some kind of freaky code name for backpacking through South America, I paused.
“Huh?”
As it turns out, her mind instantly went to my one-month gap in health care. COBRA is an acronym which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which is the federal law that allows employees to continue coverage in a group health plan after quitting. Provided I’m still insured the day before I quit, I can extend my coverage up to 18 months after I leave. Good thing I’ll only need it for a month as I’m preparing myself for extreme sticker shock.

But since I am young, single and healthy, I may look at short term individual health insurance too, just to compare. Employers can charge the entire premium (so what I paid, PLUS what they paid), as well as an extra 2% for administrative costs.

I’m only paying $47 a month now, but I’m not sure how much my company is paying in my stead?