As a recently unemployed older worker, you have options for health insurance, but read the fine print. It will be crucial.

If you were part of a group health insurance plan sponsored by your employer and you lose your job, you may be entitled to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act or (COBRA).

This health insurance program gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits the right to choose to continue benefits provided by their group health plan.

COBRA coverage lets you pay to stay on your job-based health insurance for a limited time after your job ends (usually 18 months). You usually pay the full premium yourself, plus a small administrative fee.

Sometimes as part of an exit package, the employer may foot the cost of COBRA for an employee and their family for a short period of time to coincide with a severance package.

In 1988, at the age of 58, my father was laid off from his job as a lighting engineer at GTE Sylvania. Thus began his forced retirement.

My mother worked two more years and left her job in the school system on her own terms.

Both had vastly different experiences exiting their jobs.

My father’s lay off came as a surprise. With a lump in his throat, he asked HR how long he had to finish up his projects. They told him there was no need, his job was done, and he could go. It was a tremendous blow. He had worked 21 years for the company, and this was not the way he expected to finish his work life. For the remainder of his days, he carried a sense of shame about the experience.