Lost your job? Your 2026 health insurance options, priced

Browse Health Plans team · Reviewed by a licensed health insurance advisor · Updated October 21, 2026

When job-based coverage ends you have three doors, and the right one depends on your projected income for the rest of 2026 and on your health. The Marketplace door opens for 60 days after your coverage ends, and the tax credit behind it is sized to the income you now expect for the year, not the salary you just lost. A 40-year-old in Harris County, Texas who expects to finish 2026 at $45,000 gets an estimated $233 a month in credit, which brings the lowest-priced Bronze plan from $375 at full price to about $142. The COBRA door keeps the plan you had, at the full premium your employer was paying plus up to 2%, which on the 2025 national average works out to about $793 a month for one person and about $2,294 for a family. The private door is for healthy households: a 40-year-old man in Harris County is typically quoted $175 to $599 a month, after a health application the carrier can decline.

Those three numbers are the whole decision for most people, and the rest of this guide shows where they come from and how they change with your county, your age and your household. The Marketplace figures are priced from the official 2026 plan file (CMS QHP Landscape PY2026, snapshot August 4, 2026); how we price explains the maths behind every figure on this site.

First, the deadlines

Three clocks start when your coverage ends, and they do not run at the same speed.

• Marketplace: 60 days. Losing job-based coverage is a qualifying life event. You can apply on HealthCare.gov or your state marketplace from 60 days before the coverage end date to 60 days after it. Coverage starts the first of the month after you pick a plan. Miss the window and you wait for Open Enrollment, which for 2027 coverage runs from November 1, 2026 into January.
• COBRA: 60 days to elect, then 45 days to pay. Your former employer (or its administrator) sends an election notice. You have 60 days from that notice to elect, and the coverage is retroactive to the day your old plan ended, so you can wait and see whether anything happens before you commit.
• Private plans: no deadline. Underwritten plans are sold in any month. The application takes a few days, and coverage typically starts on a date you choose within the next few weeks.

One trap worth knowing before you elect COBRA: once you are on it, you generally cannot switch to the Marketplace with a credit until COBRA runs out, your employer stops contributing, or Open Enrollment arrives. Choosing COBRA in March and discovering in June that the Marketplace would have cost a third as much is a common and avoidable mistake. Price the Marketplace first, inside the 60 days, using the tool on this site.

What COBRA costs

COBRA is not a different plan. It is your old plan, with the same network, the same deductible, and the same progress toward that deductible, but with you paying the whole premium instead of the share your employer used to cover. Federal COBRA applies to employers with 20 or more employees and usually lasts 18 months; smaller employers are covered by state continuation rules that vary.

The KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average total premium for employer coverage at $9,325 a year for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage. Employers may add a 2% administration fee, so the typical COBRA bill is about $793 a month for one person and about $2,294 a month for a family. Your own figure is on the election notice, and it can be well above or below the average depending on how rich the plan was.

COBRA is usually the right short-term answer in two situations: someone in the household is in the middle of treatment with a doctor or hospital that a Marketplace plan does not cover, or you have already met most of a large deductible this year and starting over in a new plan would cost more than the premium difference. Outside those two cases it is typically the most expensive door, because the Marketplace credit and underwritten private plans both price your new circumstances, and COBRA prices the old ones.

How the Marketplace credit works when your income just dropped

The premium tax credit is based on the household income you expect for the whole of 2026, counted as modified adjusted gross income. That means the months you worked still count, and so do severance, unemployment compensation, a spouse's earnings, and whatever you expect to earn in a new job before December 31. If you were laid off in September after earning $60,000 and expect $4,000 of unemployment over the rest of the year, you project about $64,000, which for a single person is just over the $62,600 line and means no credit for 2026. If the layoff came in April and you expect $45,000 for the year, you are well inside the credit range. How the 2026 credit works walks through the formula in detail.

The credit itself is the gap between the silver benchmark plan in your county and a share of your income that rises from about 2% at the bottom of the range to 9.96% at 400% of the poverty level. Here is what that produces for a single 40-year-old in Harris County, where the benchmark is $592 and the lowest-priced Bronze plan is $375 a month at full price.

Single 40-year-old, Harris County, Texas. Marketplace premiums from the CMS plan file (snapshot August 4, 2026); credit maths per IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25 and the 2025 HHS poverty guidelines. A credit larger than the Bronze premium brings the Bronze plan to $0 but the unused portion is not paid out; applying it to a Silver or Gold plan instead usually buys a lower deductible for a small monthly cost.

Two cautions. The credit is reconciled on your 2026 tax return, so if a new job pushes your income above what you projected, you pay back the difference, and above the 400% line you pay back all of it. Update your income on the Marketplace as soon as the new job starts. And in the 10 states that did not expand Medicaid, including Texas and Florida, a projected income under 100% of the poverty level ($15,650 for one person) qualifies for neither a credit nor Medicaid; in the other 40 states and DC a single person under about $21,600 is generally directed to Medicaid instead of a Marketplace credit.

2025 HHS poverty guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and DC, which apply to 2026 coverage (Alaska and Hawaii are higher). Source: 90 FR 5917 and IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25.

Six counties, three doors, one table

The same comparison for six big counties, at different ages and projected incomes, to show how the three doors move. The COBRA column is the national average above; your election notice has your own number.

Monthly, non-tobacco, single person. Marketplace columns from the CMS PY2026 plan file (snapshot August 4, 2026); the silver benchmarks used for the credits are $592 (Harris, 40), $906 (Hillsborough, 50), $508 (Wayne, 40), $514 (Franklin, 35), $667 (Wake, 45) and $844 (Maricopa, 55). Private column: the starting range a healthy applicant is typically quoted from the carrier rate tables our advisors use, after their usual adjustment; health questions apply. COBRA column: KFF 2025 average single premium plus 2%.

Read the table across any row and the pattern is the same. With a credit, the Marketplace is the lowest-cost door, often by a wide margin, and it asks no health questions. Without a credit, the private range for a healthy applicant sits below the full-price Bronze plan, and the gap widens with age: the 55-year-old in Maricopa County would pay $678 for the lowest Bronze at full price against a private range that starts at $367. COBRA is the most expensive door in every row unless the old plan was unusually cheap or you need it for continuity of care. The Texas and Florida pages show every county in those states, and the tool prices all three doors for your own household in about thirty seconds.

Where private plans fit, and where they do not

Private plans are not Marketplace plans and are not ACA coverage. The application asks about your height and weight, tobacco use, prescriptions, and whether you have been diagnosed with or treated for a list of conditions in recent years. A healthy applicant is typically approved at the quoted range. An applicant with a controlled condition is often approved at a higher price or with that condition excluded. An applicant with insulin-dependent diabetes, heart disease, a recent cancer or a current pregnancy is usually declined. What underwriting asks goes through the questions one by one.

For someone who has just lost a job, that trade is worth taking in one specific case: your projected 2026 income is above the credit line, because of the months you already worked, a severance payment or a spouse's salary, and everyone who needs coverage is healthy. In that case the Marketplace at full price is a four-figure annual premium for a plan with a deductible that can reach $10,600, and an underwritten PPO-style plan often costs less and comes with a lower deductible and a broader network. Private plans also sell in any month, so a layoff that lands outside the 60-day window still has an option.

The trade is not worth taking if anyone in the household has an ongoing condition. The Marketplace cannot decline you, cannot exclude a condition and cannot charge you more for it, and that protection is worth more than the premium difference. It is also rarely worth taking when you qualify for a meaningful credit, because the after-credit Marketplace price in most rows above is already below the private range. Our advisors place both kinds of plan, and the honest answer for most laid-off households with a drop in income is the Marketplace.

Two practical questions to ask before you choose a private plan as a bridge: how the plan handles cancellation when a new employer's coverage starts, and whether the plan pays claims as a fixed amount or as a percentage of the bill. Both answers vary by plan and both change what the premium is buying.

A short decision path

• Someone is mid-treatment, or you have met most of this year's deductible: elect COBRA, at least until the treatment or the plan year ends, then move to the Marketplace at Open Enrollment.
• Your projected 2026 income is under the 400% line for your household size: enrol on the Marketplace inside the 60 days and take the credit. Consider a Silver plan if your income is under about 250% of the poverty level, because cost-sharing reductions lower the deductible on Silver only.
• Your projected income is over the line and everyone is healthy: get a private quote before paying full Marketplace price, and compare deductibles, not just premiums.
• Your projected income is over the line and someone has a condition: price the Marketplace at full price and COBRA side by side; the one with the better network for the care you need usually wins.
• You expect a new job with benefits within a few months: the Marketplace with a credit is still typically the lowest-cost bridge, and you can end it the month the new coverage starts. Report the new income promptly to avoid repaying credit in April.

If a spouse still has job-based coverage that counts as affordable under the IRS rules, you may not qualify for a Marketplace credit even with a low projected income; joining that plan within 30 days of losing yours is a special enrollment on the employer side. An advisor can check the affordability test in a few minutes. Projected income, severance and unemployment all affect your credit and your tax return, so confirm with your tax professional.

Questions people ask

Sources: CMS QHP Landscape PY2026 Individual Medical file (data.healthcare.gov, snapshot August 4, 2026) for Marketplace premiums and benchmarks; HHS 2025 poverty guidelines (90 FR 5917) and IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25 for the credit maths; KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey for average employer premiums; U.S. Department of Labor COBRA guidance for election and payment deadlines; carrier rate tables used by our advisors for private ranges. Figures are monthly, non-tobacco, and can change before Open Enrollment.