COBRA — the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act — is the federal law that lets you stay on your employer's health plan for a limited time after certain life events knock you off it, even though you're no longer actively employed there. * It kicks in after a "qualifying event": losing your job (for reasons other than gross misconduct), having your hours reduced below what your plan requires for eligibility, divorcing a spouse whose plan covered you, or aging out of dependent coverage, among others. Your former employer generally has to have at least 20 employees for COBRA to apply at all — it doesn't cover every workplace. * The process has built-in deadlines on both sides. Your employer is required to send you a COBRA election notice within 44 days of the qualifying event, explaining your options and the cost. Once you receive it, you get at least 60 days to decide whether to elect coverage — and if you do, it applies retroactively back to when your original coverage would have lapsed, so there's no actual gap in coverage even if you take time to decide. * Coverage duration depends on the qualifying event: typically up to 18 months for job loss or reduced hours, extendable to 29 months if you're determined disabled by the Social Security Administration, or up to 36 months for certain other qualifying events like divorce. * The tradeoff is cost. COBRA isn't subsidized the way it was while you were employed — you pay the full premium, including the portion your employer used to cover, plus up to a 2% administrative fee, which is why COBRA premiums often run several hundred dollars a month for an individual and considerably more for family coverage.