I know I’ve talked about Cobra in the past. I have talked about both dental & vision in the past.

So this week, I want to get a little more in-depth on that benefit and how COBRA can benefit you for dental and vision.

• As we know, if you are offered COBRA, when you leave a job, it seems very expensive because your employer is no longer paying your portion of the premium.
• That can potentially be true for dental & vision, but not always. Let me explain.
  • Employers are required to cover at least 50% of the employee part of the medical, dental & vision. That’s not true.
    • Some employers do pay for some of your dental vision, but some of them do not.
    • I always counsel all of my clients that if dental & vision are offered through COBRA, do the COBRA dental & vision.
    • And yes, you should be able to separate that from the medical, it doesn’t mean you’re locked into doing the medical COBRA. You can do just the dental & vision.
      • What it means is that you get the benefit of an employer dental and or vision plan.
      • You may have already been paying full price, so it’s going to be the same, there but with the benefits that would not come with a standalone plan.
      • Or if the employer was paying for some yes, you’re now going to pay the full price for it.
      • But, it’s still going to be similar in cost to what I can offer you on an individual basis.
      • And the kicker is that the benefits are going to be better 99.9% of the time.
      • On standalone plans, there are usually:
        • A 12-month waiting period for several services
        • And then there’s a yearly cap. (Only one plan that I can offer has no yearly cap).
      • On COBRA:
        • You have already met any waiting periods, so all benefits are available now.
      • Generally speaking, I have yet to see an employer plan that has benefits worse than what I can offer you on standalone plans, and they rarely cost more than then what I have.

So I always, always, always counsel my clients to do the 18 months of Cobra for dental & vision.

When it gets close to running out, then we can talk, and if you stayed on the medical, then you want to contact me so we can search for our options. As far as dental vision goes, this is your best option to keep your employer-sponsored plan.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me.