Losing employer health coverage is one of the most immediately stressful parts of a layoff, and how much it actually matters depends heavily on where you live. The US and UK situations are different enough that they're worth covering separately rather than blending into one generic answer.
US: your actual options
COBRA lets you keep your exact former employer plan for up to 18 months, but you pay the full premium yourself, employer and employee share combined, which is often three to four times what you were paying as an employee. Some severance packages include a few months of employer-paid COBRA as a subsidy, though that subsidy period has been shrinking industry-wide, down from an average of around 6 months to roughly 3 in 2026. Beyond COBRA, a layoff triggers a special enrollment period for ACA marketplace plans, which can be meaningfully cheaper than COBRA once income-based subsidies are applied, especially since your income has just dropped. If a spouse or partner has employer coverage, losing your own job also triggers a special enrollment window, typically around 30 days, to join theirs. Short-term or gap plans exist too, but they're not ACA-compliant, often exclude pre-existing conditions, and are a real-cost tradeoff, not a free safety net.
UK: what actually changes, which is less than you'd think
In the UK, losing your job does not affect your access to NHS care, which remains free at the point of use regardless of employment status. What you actually lose is any private health insurance your employer was providing on top of the NHS, commonly a scheme through a provider like Bupa or Vitality, along with any linked dental or optical extras. Some employers allow you to continue an equivalent private policy at your own cost after leaving, and independent private health insurance is available on the open market if you want to replace what you had. For most people, the practical impact is smaller than the US situation, since the NHS floor doesn't disappear, but if you specifically relied on private coverage for faster specialist access or a particular treatment, that's the gap to plan around.
Which option actually makes sense
If you expect to land a new role with benefits within a month or two, a short bridge, COBRA for the US or simply going without supplemental private cover in the UK, is often the cheapest path. If your job search is likely to run longer, or you have ongoing care needs, the marketplace (US) or an independent private policy (UK) is usually the more sustainable option than paying full COBRA premiums indefinitely.
Next steps
Check your specific severance offer for how many months of coverage, if any, are already included before you shop for a replacement plan. For the full legal picture on what else you're owed after a layoff, see our breakdowns for US severance and the WARN Act and UK severance and notice periods. Once your coverage gap is sorted, set up job alerts so the search for your next role runs in the background.