Understand COBRA

The main thing to remember is that when you sign up for COBRA health insurance, you are actually just being allowed to continue coverage under your former (or current if you lost coverage because of hours) employer’s health insurance program and so you are entitled to the same rights and benefits as a full time non-COBRA insurance covered employee. So, what happens if you have a child while you’re on COBRA? Usually that, and getting married or any other event where a dependent is added, is considered a qualifying event on most health insurance plans and you’re allowed add that dependent to your insurance coverage. If that is the case with the main plan then you will be allowed to add that dependent onto your COBRA coverage since it will be identical to the other plan, it’s just that you pay the full bill (instead of being subsidized as a benefit by your employer). You will have to contact your plan administrator for the paperwork.

So in summary, if you need to add a dependent to your COBRA coverage and the dependent came by way of a qualifying event such as a birth, marriage, etc. you will usually be allowed to add that dependent to your COBRA health insurance, just contact your plan administrator. If you just want to add a child that wasn’t covered before, that will likely not be possible since you had the option to add them when you enrolled – again, check with your plan administrator but usually health insurance plans won’t let you add dependents without a qualifying event such as birth or marriage.