Refuse a Covid vaccine? Here are health insurance options if you’re

Thousands of workers across the country have been fired for refusing to comply with an employer’s Covid vaccine requirements — and may now wonder how to replace their workplace health insurance.

There are a few options. They’re the same ones available to anyone who loses a job, even for a non-vaccine-related reason, according to health experts.

However, there may be drawbacks ranging from cost to stingy coverage, depending on the selected option, they said.

Here are the ways to get insured.

Employer-sponsored coverage through one’s spouse is likely the best place to start, according to Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

“I’d first look to see if I could join another group health plan,” Pollitz said. “That will probably be your best deal.”

Typically, enrollment in a workplace health plan happens only once a year, during the annual open-enrollment period near year’s end. This is when employees can sign up for coverage for the next calendar year.

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But since losing a job (and the associated employer-sponsored health insurance) also qualifies someone to sign up outside that open-enrollment window, newly unemployed people can enroll for coverage through their spouse’s work plan at that time, as well. Doing so would provide insurance coverage for the remainder of 2021.

You must request special enrollment within 30 days from the loss of your job-based coverage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act — better known as COBRA — lets the newly jobless continue their workplace coverage for up to 18 months.

The option is available for health, vision and dental benefits.

But there’s a catch: Coverage will likely be much more expensive than while employed — and at a time when one’s income has evaporated.

“The concern is the cost associated with it,” said Christopher Moran, partner and employment attorney at law firm Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders. “I think most people would be offered the option, but the question would be whether they can afford it.”

An employer generally subsidizes health benefits for workers; the employee pays just a share of the monthly premium and other costs. But that perk disappears with COBRA coverage.

For example, families paid $21,342, on average, in 2020 for health insurance premiums, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But workers’ share of the annual cost was just $5,588 — employers paid the remaining $15,754.

Under Cobra, an ex-employee would be on the hook for the full $21,342 — plus an extra 2%.

The American Rescue Plan, a pandemic relief law President Joe Biden signed in March, offered free COBRA insurance coverage to the unemployed, but the benefit ended Sept. 30.

One caveat: COBRA isn’t available to private-sector…