Question: What type of coverage is available if you can no longer pay your Cobra premiums and Covered California will not let you enroll with or without a subsidy because of having Cobra? My husband was laid of at the end of 2014 and accepted Cobra because the first 5 months were affordable at employee rates, but will increase to $2,300 a month which is not affordable (57% of our income). What can we do for the remaining 7 months of the year? There is no way to pay $2,300 a month until open enrollment.

Answer: According to the ACA, if you have COBRA coverage you can enroll in Covered California under the following circumstances: (1) during open enrollment or (2) when your COBRA coverage expires. You missed the open enrollment period and can't afford to pay for COBRA to expiration because your COBRA coverage is unaffordable by any measure at your current income. If you can enroll in Covered California, your net premium after applying the subsidized premium assistance would be less than $400/mo for a Silver Plan (2-person household @ $48k/yr). So how can we make that happen? A significant change of income can trigger a "Special Enrollment Period" giving you 60 days to enroll in Covered California after the income change. Your income change after your husband's layoff was probably more than 60 days ago, but your employer continued to pay a portion of your COBRA premium - a form of income - for 5 months. When your employer stopped funding the premium, you experienced another change of income, significant enough to make your coverage unaffordable. I believe you can be enrolled in Covered California now, but this is a case where you would be wise to use a Certified Agent to submit your application and advocate for you.