Florida Mini-COBRA Health Insurance Continuation Calculator

How this calculator works

Federal COBRA — the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, codified at 29 U.S.C. §§ 1161-1169 — gives employees of large employers the right to continue group health coverage after they lose it, for up to 18 months, at up to 102% of the full premium. Federal COBRA only reaches employers with 20 or more employees on a typical business day in the preceding calendar year. Florida fills the gap below that threshold by statute. F.S. § 627.6692, the Florida Health Insurance Coverage Continuation Act — universally called "Florida Mini-COBRA" — extends parallel continuation rights to employees of Florida employers with fewer than 20 employees whose group health policy is issued in Florida.

This calculator does three things. It computes the Mini-COBRA monthly cost at 102% of the full group premium (the 100% premium plus the 2% administrative fee the statute permits). It compares that cost to the household's prior employee payroll-deduction contribution — the "post-job premium shock" — and to two structural alternatives, an ACA marketplace plan with any anticipated premium tax credit and adding the household to a spouse's employer plan through the loss-of-coverage special enrollment event. And it surfaces the 30-day election deadline that F.S. § 627.6692 imposes, which is half of federal COBRA's 60-day window and is the single most common source of accidental forfeiture.

The load-bearing terms of F.S. § 627.6692

Florida Mini-COBRA tracks federal COBRA closely on the substantive terms. The continuation period is 18 months from the qualifying event, with no extension for any qualifying event (federal COBRA extends to 36 months for certain events; Florida Mini-COBRA does not adopt that extension). The premium cap is 102% of the full group premium — the 100% premium the carrier charges for the coverage tier plus a 2% administrative fee. The premium is paid by the enrollee directly to the carrier; the former employer is out of the picture financially once continuation begins.

Qualifying events under F.S. § 627.6692 include involuntary or voluntary termination of employment (except for gross misconduct), reduction in hours that drops the employee below the plan's eligibility threshold, divorce or legal separation, death of the covered employee, a dependent child losing dependent status under the plan's terms, and Medicare entitlement of the covered employee that ends eligibility for the group plan. The same set of qualifying events that triggers federal COBRA for employees of larger employers triggers Florida Mini-COBRA for employees of small Florida employers.

The 30-day election window is where Florida departs from federal COBRA in a way that costs households real money. Federal COBRA under 29 U.S.C. § 1165 gives the enrollee 60 days from the notice of termination of coverage to elect; Florida Mini-COBRA gives only 30 days. The shorter window catches households who assume they have the federal window or who do not register the clock starting when the carrier's notice arrives. The conservative posture is to contact the employer's HR or the group health carrier within a few days of the qualifying event, confirm the start of the 30-day clock, and elect well before the deadline rather than at it.

The post-job premium shock

The Mini-COBRA monthly cost is structurally a step function up from the prior payroll deduction. Take a household where the employer was paying $800 per month and the employee was paying $200 per month for family coverage. The full group premium is $1,000 per month. The Mini-COBRA monthly cost is $1,020 — the household just took on the previously employer-paid share plus the 2% administrative fee, an increase of $820 per month relative to the prior $200 payroll deduction. Over 18 months, that is $18,360 of premium. This is the number that surprises most former employees and is the number the calculator surfaces front and center.

The three structural alternatives

Mini-COBRA is rarely the cheapest of the three structural alternatives, but it is often the right call once provider-network continuity and deductible-balance preservation are weighed.

ACA marketplace. Loss of employer group coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period on healthcare.gov under 45 C.F.R. § 155.420. For households below roughly 400% of the federal poverty level, the premium tax credit often produces a meaningfully lower net monthly cost than the 102% Mini-COBRA premium. The trade-off is the marketplace plan's provider network (which may not match the prior employer plan's network) and a fresh deductible year (the household loses any already-met deductible balance from the prior plan). Households with an in-progress specialist relationship, a scheduled procedure, or a meaningfully-met deductible often elect Mini-COBRA despite the higher premium for the four to six months it takes to land at the next plan year.

Spousal employer plan. Loss of other group coverage is a qualifying event for mid-year enrollment under the IRS Section 125 cafeteria-plan rules, so a working spouse's employer plan can add the former employee and any dependents without waiting for open enrollment. The spouse's HR will quote the additional monthly premium to step up from the spouse's current coverage tier to one that includes the household; that quote is structurally cheaper than Mini-COBRA because the spouse's employer continues to subsidize the premium. The enrollment window varies by plan but is typically 30 to 60 days from the loss-of-coverage date.

Florida Mini-COBRA. The structural advantage of Mini-COBRA is plan-continuity. The household keeps the exact same provider network, deductible balance, out-of-pocket-maximum credit, and prescription formulary it carried at the prior employer. For households mid-year with an already-met deductible or an in-network specialist relationship, this can be worth the higher premium for the remainder of the plan year.

Payment timing and grace periods

F.S. § 627.6692 provides a 30-day grace period for the initial premium after election and a 30-day grace period for each subsequent monthly premium. Coverage is retroactive to the date of loss once the initial premium is paid, so a household that elects on day 25 of the election window and pays on day 25 of the initial-payment grace period has continuous coverage retroactive to the qualifying event. The structural risk is missing a subsequent monthly premium's 30-day grace — once the second-or-later premium grace runs out without payment, the carrier can terminate the continuation coverage retroactively and the household loses the rest of the 18-month entitlement.

What the calculator does not do

This calculator is a planning tool. It does not compute the federal ACA premium tax credit — the user provides the estimated marketplace premium as an input, after any anticipated subsidy. It does not model the 36-month continuation period available under federal COBRA for certain qualifying events; Florida Mini-COBRA caps at 18 months for every qualifying event. It does not model the federal COBRA 11-month disability extension at the 150% premium cap, which Florida Mini-COBRA does not adopt. It does not opine on whether the prior employer is properly within the under-20-employee Mini-COBRA scope or has crossed into federal COBRA territory — a question that occasionally matters when an employer hovers around the 20-employee threshold across the calendar year.

How this page is maintained

F.S. § 627.6692 has been substantially stable since enactment, with periodic clarifying amendments at the margins. The 102% premium cap and 18-month continuation period have not moved. The page is reviewed at least annually against the current statute, federal COBRA, and the current healthcare.gov enrollment rules; if the legislature substantively changes the continuation framework or the federal rules around the loss-of-coverage special enrollment period shift, this page is updated and re-stamped within the quarter.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 against F.S. § 627.6692, 29 U.S.C. § 1161, 26 U.S.C. § 4980B, and 45 C.F.R. § 155.420.