About Us

Charles Smith

Charles Smith built CobraCalculator.com after seeing how many people struggled to make sense of their health insurance costs when they were laid off. A job loss is already overwhelming—sorting through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, employer contributions, administrative fees, and what "102% of the cost" really means in a monthly budget felt like one more hurdle at the worst possible time. Friends and colleagues kept asking the same questions: How much will COBRA actually cost? How does that compare to a paycheck deduction they used to see? Charles kept wishing there was a simple, trustworthy place to run the numbers without signing up for anything or inviting a flood of sales calls.

That need is why this site exists. Charles wanted a free, privacy-respecting tool that estimates monthly, annual, and per-paycheck COBRA premiums using clear inputs—so anyone facing a transition can plan conversations with HR, a plan administrator, or a financial or insurance professional with a realistic starting point. He believes practical help during a layoff should not cost your phone number or your peace of mind. CobraCalculator.com is not legal or medical advice, but it reflects his hope that fewer people will feel lost when they are trying to keep coverage after a job ends.

How the estimate is calculated

There is no hidden model here and no data source you cannot check. The calculator does two pieces of arithmetic, both of which you can redo on paper:

• If you know the total plan cost: the COBRA premium is that figure multiplied by 102%. The extra 2% is the administrative fee that federal law permits a plan to charge.
• If you only know your old paycheck deduction: the deduction is converted to a monthly figure using your pay frequency, then divided by your employee share to recover the full plan cost, and that result is multiplied by 102%. Weekly is treated as 52 pay periods a year and bi-weekly as 26, so those convert at 4.33 and 2.17 paychecks per month rather than a flat 4 and 2.

The 102% figure and the coverage periods quoted throughout the guide come from the COBRA continuation rules published by the U.S. Department of Labor, linked from the footer of every page. Where a number is an assumption rather than a rule, such as the default employer contribution share, it is shown as an editable input rather than buried in the maths.

What this site does not do

Charles is not a lawyer, a licensed insurance broker, or a financial adviser, and nothing here is legal, medical, or financial advice. The calculator produces an estimate. Your real invoice depends on your specific plan, your employer's administrator, and in some cases state continuation rules that differ from the federal ones. The only authoritative figure is the one your plan administrator gives you in writing, and this tool is meant to help you sanity-check that figure rather than replace it.

The site does not sell insurance, take commissions, or refer you to brokers. There is no lead form, and the calculator runs in your browser without sending your entries to a server.

Corrections and how this is written

Content is drafted and edited by Charles, who is responsible for what appears here. Software tools are used in writing and maintaining the site, as they are on most sites of this kind. A person sets the argument, checks every figure against the primary source, and signs off before anything is published. No page goes up unreviewed.

If you find something wrong, please say so and it will be corrected or removed. Errors in figures or in statements of law are treated as urgent. Email cobracalculator@gmail.com with the page and the claim you are questioning.

Advertising

This site is free to use and is funded by advertising. Ads are served by Google and are labelled as ads. Advertisers have no say in what the guide says, no advance sight of it, and no influence on the calculator's output. Nothing here is a paid placement or an affiliate link. How advertising cookies work, and how to opt out of them, is set out in the privacy policy.