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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

"6 months of COBRA" presumably means Dropbox will pay 6 months of COBRA premiums for departed team members? COBRA has a statutory duration much longer than 6 months.

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Isn’t Cobra usually paid for by the member?

Yes, it means Dropbox will pay you the cost of 6 months of COBRA. So let's say your premium is $1500/mo, Dropbox is going to give you up to $9k.

They could have just said continued healthcare for 6 months - that's got to be a lot better than paying for 6 months of COBRA.

It's the same thing. COBRA means you continue any healthcare plan you had while employed, with the only difference being you pay the full premium rather than your company subsidizing it. But in this case, it seems Dropbox is still subsidizing it (if that is indeed what that sentence in the letter means)... so it is just continued health coverage.

It's not the same thing. Continued healthcare means you are fully on the employer plan and afterwards, the COBRA timer starts. Paying for COBRA means the timer starts now.

Employer health plans can't cover non-employees.

The group plan covers employees. Former employees are not going to be eligible. Though the company can pay the COBRA premiums for the same coverage fairly seamlessly.

I was part of a group that split from a company, our new company paid COBRA premiums for our people until we set up our own group plan for the next year.

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