Administrative Burdens and Inequities in COBRA Take‐Up

ABSTRACT To what extent does COBRA's lack of program visibility and complexity induce inequities in access to this form of health insurance? Though COBRA has long been an important tool for helping workers to avoid “job lock,” precious little scholarship has been devoted to understanding its reach. Relying on the first nationwide survey on COBRA take‐up and utilization, this article examines the administrative burdens associated with COBRA take‐up and finds that not only are White workers far more aware of the option of COBRA enrollment than are their Black and Hispanic counterparts, but the racial, educational, and economic divides persist when evaluating workers' understandings of its impact on their health care costs. However, the effect of race on misinformation about the financial impact of COBRA disappears when isolating analysis to union members, suggesting that organized labor can play a critical role in reducing disparities in understanding about health insurance. The findings call attention to a great need for the government and employers to better convey the tradeoffs associated with COBRA take‐up, so as to reduce the inequities in this realm of health care access.