COBRA Audiences
. 37M people in the United States fit the COBRA profile at the Qualified tier, with 1.83× more high-fit people than the U.S. population baseline. At $1.50 to $3.00 CPM, these audiences are priced at approximately 50% or less of the market rate, with results reported every week.
Enrollment timing. There is no annual season. The election window is generally 60 days from the later of the date coverage ends or the date the election notice is sent.
Qualified audience
Every person is scored 0 to 100 for fit to this channel. You buy only the tiers that qualify.
$1.50 to $3.00 CPM
Priced at approximately 50% or less of the market rate for health insurance audiences.
Weekly measurement
Qualified reach, lift against the national panel, and reach by state, reported every week of the enrollment window.
Who this audience is
Adults who recently left or lost a job and can keep their old employer plan by paying the full premium themselves. That premium is usually a shock; the employer was covering most of it. Almost everyone in this group is weighing COBRA against a cheaper Marketplace plan.
Why they are in market
There is no annual window here. The clock starts the day coverage ends, and the decision window is about 60 days. That makes this the only channel of the five that is always in season, and the one where speed of reach matters most.
How big this audience is of 252M scored people
| Tier | Score | Share | U.S. reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-Fit | 85+ | 10.4% | 26,169,120 |
| Qualified | 75+ | 14.6% | 36,797,625 |
| Extended Reach | 65+ | 15% | 37,815,228 |
| Digitally active, qualified | 4.7% | 11,869,301 |
Qualified is the default buy. Digitally active is the qualified audience with average or higher digital engagement: 32% of it. Mean channel score across the panel: 75.5/100. Each person counts toward one channel only.
Age index vs. U.S. population
Affluence index vs. U.S. population
100 = same share as the U.S. population. Teal is over-represented (130+), orange is under-represented (70 or below). The vertical line marks 100.
Reading the audience profile
Tightly concentrated in ages 23 to 49, all three bands indexing above 185, far narrower than any other channel. Nothing 50 and up qualifies. Affluence tilts sharply toward Budget, with Affluent effectively zero: COBRA remains a lower-income product once cross-channel overlap is removed, since affluent job-losers consistently fit Employer-Sponsored better.
Top states qualified audience
- Indiana 2.4M
- Louisiana 1.7M
- Kentucky 1.7M
- Nebraska 696K
- North Dakota 265K
- District of Columbia 248K
By index against population, North Dakota (338), Alaska (336), Nebraska (327), District of Columbia (324) and Louisiana (322) lead.
Where to reach them search and content themes
The language people use when they look for coverage information, for contextual and PMP targeting.
- COBRA insurance after losing job
- how long does COBRA coverage last
- COBRA vs marketplace insurance
- COBRA premium cost
- continuation of health coverage after layoff
- COBRA subsidy eligibility
- switching from COBRA to marketplace
Common questions
Evidence base primary sources for COBRA
- Public health researchSHADAC State Health Compare, Health Insurance Coverage Type by Total, 2024
- Federal surveyU.S. Census Bureau, ACS brief ACSBR-024, Health Insurance Coverage by State: 2023 and 2024
- Direct countSemcasting national person scoring, 251,722,617 records
How the audience is built
Each of 251.7M U.S. adults is scored 0 to 100 for fit to COBRA: a 40-point base, up to 25 points for age fit, up to 20 for household affluence fit, and up to 15 for state coverage context. Geography: Qualified means a score of 75 or higher with COBRA as the person's best-fit channel. High-Fit means 85 or higher.
How quality is confirmed
Reach figures are direct counts from the full national scoring, not extrapolations from a sample, and each person counts toward one channel only. During a campaign, the qualified share of households reached is measured every week against the national panel at the same score cutoffs.
What it is not
A marketing propensity score built from published, population-level Census, SHADAC and CMS data. It is not an insurance eligibility, subsidy or coverage determination for any person. No individual enrollment records, claims or PHI are used, and race is reported for parity checks only, never scored.