Health insurance when you quit a small Nebraska firm to consult: price the next plan before you give notice

Sam Jaber, Licensed Health Insurance Advisor · Updated October 2026

NPN 20698748 · Licensed in Nebraska, one of 31 states where Sam Jaber holds a license · Licensing details

Short answer: If the firm has 20 or more employees, federal COBRA covers you even if you quit. Below 20, Nebraska continuation covers only involuntary job loss, so resigning usually ends the plan with the job. Price the next plan before giving notice: a HealthCare.gov plan with a credit, or an underwritten nationwide PPO plan if you're healthy.

• I'm resigning from a small firm
• My firm has 20 or more employees
• The firm is letting me go
• My income qualifies for a credit
• Over the line and healthy
• Over the line with a condition
• Not sure yet

This one is for Nebraska engineers leaving a small civil, structural, mechanical or electrical firm to take plan reviews, inspections and design work on their own. Some clients may follow you out the door. The firm's health plan usually will not.

Two Nebraska facts matter here. A firm with fewer than 20 employees is too small for federal COBRA, and Nebraska's own continuation law reaches only people who lose the job involuntarily, so resigning to consult generally ends the plan when your job ends. And whatever you move to next is priced in an expensive market: the average 2026 benchmark premium for a 40-year-old in Nebraska was $710 a month.

So timing comes first: have the next plan lined up before you hand in your notice. Then the long-run question: will your consulting income qualify you for a premium tax credit on HealthCare.gov? The first three sections cover how you leave; the rest cover the income.

If you're resigning from a firm with fewer than 20 employees

Nebraska's continuation law, Neb. Rev. Stat. 44-1640, applies to an employee whose group coverage would end "because of the involuntary termination of employment," for reasons other than misconduct. A resignation is a voluntary departure, so the law generally does not reach it, and the firm's plan ends when your employment does. Ask the firm the exact date your coverage stops; that date, not your last client meeting, is your deadline.

The good news is that losing job coverage opens a 60-day window to enroll on HealthCare.gov outside open enrollment, and you can generally apply up to 60 days before the coverage ends. Used well, that means the new plan starts the day after the old one stops. If you are healthy and expect to earn above the credit line, price an underwritten plan at the same time; approval is not automatic, so apply early enough to have an answer before your last day.

Short-term plans are sold in Nebraska too, with terms that have varied by insurer since federal enforcement changed in 2025. They ask health questions, usually exclude conditions you already have, and their end does not open a marketplace window, so get the length, renewal terms and exclusions in writing before you lean on one.

If the firm has 20 or more employees

A larger firm is generally subject to federal COBRA, and COBRA covers a resignation: only a firing for gross misconduct is excluded. You can keep the same plan, with the same doctors and the deductible you have already met, for up to 18 months at up to 102% of its full cost, and you have 60 days to elect it. When COBRA eventually runs out, that opens the 60-day marketplace window. Dropping it by choice in the middle of the year does not, so decide at the start how long you plan to keep it. Our page on COBRA and its alternatives shows how to compare the costs.

If the firm lets you go instead

If a small firm ends your job for reasons other than misconduct, Nebraska continuation does apply. It can keep you on the group plan for up to six months, and you pay the whole premium, up to 102% of the group rate. The deadlines are short: the employer must send the notice within 10 days after your job ends, and your election form and first payment are due within 10 days after you receive it. A layoff caused by a labor dispute does not count as involuntary.

Continuation earns its cost if you are in the middle of treatment, have a procedure scheduled, or have already met most of this year's deductible. When it runs out, that loss of coverage opens the 60-day HealthCare.gov window, so pick the next plan around month four or five rather than in the last week.

If your consulting income qualifies for a credit

Nebraskans enroll through HealthCare.gov, as the Nebraska Department of Insurance explains. Inside the credit range, the HealthCare.gov plan with your credit applied is usually where you spend least. Because the credit is tied to the benchmark plan, Nebraska's high benchmark also means a larger credit for people who qualify.

Engineering consulting income tends to arrive at project milestones, and a large design job can pay out in one quarter. The credit uses your estimate for the full year and is reconciled when you file, so beating your projection can leave you owing part or all of it at tax time. Above 400% of the federal poverty level, $63,840 for one person buying 2027 coverage in open enrollment from November 1 ($62,600 for 2026), the credit ends entirely since the enhanced credits expired. Read how the subsidy cliff affects your household before you choose a figure.

Above the credit line and healthy

Above the line, Nebraska's prices hit hard. The average benchmark for a 40-year-old went from $600 a month in 2025 to $710 in 2026, about 18.3% higher, roughly $110 more a month for someone paying full price.

These are statewide averages for one age. Your price depends on your age, county, household and plan.

The network is the other issue. In the federal government's 2026 plan data, almost every Nebraska marketplace plan uses an EPO network, and the only PPO plans are sold in 34 of the state's 93 counties. An engineer with projects across the line in Iowa, Kansas or Colorado gets emergency coverage there on an EPO plan, but generally not routine care.

That is why healthy consultants price private plans outside HealthCare.gov that are medically underwritten and run on nationwide PPO networks. Medical questions are part of applying, and the outcome can be approval, a refusal, or approval with an existing condition excluded. Covering a screened group lets the insurer charge a healthy applicant less than the full marketplace premium in many cases. The plan sets its own benefits, so read them, and see what medical underwriting means for the details.

Above the credit line with a health condition

If you are treating a condition or depend on an expensive medication, the priority is coverage with no gap. At a firm with 20 or more employees, COBRA keeps your current plan. At a smaller firm, resigning means lining up a HealthCare.gov plan to start the day the firm's plan ends; if you were let go, continuation can hold your care steady for up to six months first. On HealthCare.gov nobody can refuse you or charge more over your health, and the essential benefits come standard. An underwritten insurer could do either.

Use the weeks before your coverage ends to choose well. Five insurers sell on HealthCare.gov in Nebraska for 2026, but which plans reach your county varies, so confirm that your doctors and prescriptions are covered before the old plan ends.

Which situation is yours?

Start with the row for how you are leaving, then the row for your income and health. Each points to the same next step.

The Nebraska guide for self-employed buyers handles the rest of Nebraska's rules, and consultants leaving a job in Colorado, where state continuation does cover a resignation, face a different hurdle.

Common questions