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Florida law and COBRA health insurance?

Does anyone know if an employer is legally obligated to offer an employee COBRA health insurance upon leaving that place of employment. I was dismissed by my employer due to a conflict in my schedule because I am also a full-time student. They were unable to continue to coordinate my position schedule into a part-time position so I could remain on staff. I had health insurance and also several supplemental policies with Aflac. I asked my employer what will happen with the insurance and they never offered me COBRA and told me that the insurance company & Alfac would contact me. My last day of employment was 01/31/2008. I still have not been contacted by the insurance company. Does the employer hold any legal obligations to offer this to me? Please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Public Comments

1. The answer as to whether you are entitled to COBRA is dependent on certain circumstances. Group health plans for employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50 percent of its typical business days in the previous calendar year are subject to COBRA. Both full and part-time employees are counted to determine whether a plan is subject to COBRA. Each part-time employee counts as a fraction of an employee, with the fraction equal to the number of hours that the part-time employee worked divided by the hours an employee must work to be considered full time. Is your employer of sufficient size? Did you have what is called a "qualifying event?" Qualifying events for employees consist of: Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for reasons other than gross misconduct, or A reduction in the number of hours of employment Your employer is required to notify the plan administrators of a qualifying event within 30 days after an employee's death, termination, reduced hours of employment or entitlement to Medicare. So, the onus is on your employer to notify the administrator of your being qualified. Since your last day of employment was 1/31, the plan administrator has some time left to be notified. When you receive notice of your being qualified, you must be sent an election notice not later than 14 days after the plan administrator receives notice that a qualifying event has occurred. Following that, you then has 60 days to decide whether to elect COBRA continuation coverage. Then, you have 45 days after electing coverage to pay the initial premium. Hope that explains the timing of COBRA.
2. trust me you dont want cobra neways cuz its soo $$$$$$
3. Both answers above seem to be very helpful indeed. I would agree that COBRA is too expensive for the average healthy person. It only makes sense to keep COBRA, in my opinion, if you have pre-existing conditions, and are not able to qualify for an individual policy. You state you are a college student, so I will guess you are about 22 years old. You can probably get superb coverage for about $125 per month, NOT including maternity benefits, which would cost you another $100 or so per month. COBRA might be 50% to 100% more expensive. Let me know if you want an exact quote. AFLAC should be transferrable to individual coverage.
4. Probably best to have a rest.looks like you can get some ideas here. http://insurance.online-assistant.info